Podcasts about Nazareth

Read OnlineThe Holy One of GodIn the synagogue there was a man with the spirit of an unclean demon, and he cried out in a loud voice, “What have you to do with us, Jesus of Nazareth? Have you come to destroy us? I know who you are—the Holy One of God!” Jesus rebuked him and said, “Be quiet! Come out of him!” Then the demon threw the man down in front of them and came out of him without doing him any harm. Luke 4:33–35Yesterday, we began reading from the Gospel of Luke in our weekday liturgies, and we will continue to do so until the season of Advent. Luke's Gospel was written especially for Gentile converts—those unfamiliar with Jewish customs—presenting Jesus not only as the fulfillment of Israel's hopes but also as the Savior of all humanity. Unlike Matthew, who highlights Christ's fulfillment of Old Testament prophecy, Luke reveals a broader vision: a universal Savior who brings healing, mercy, and salvation to the poor, the outcast, and the sinner.In today's passage, that universal mission is subtly foreshadowed through Jesus' divine authority. Though the setting is a Jewish synagogue in Capernaum, His actions speak to a power not confined to time, place, or people. With a simple word, Jesus rebukes the demon, silences its protest, and frees the afflicted man. The astonishment of the crowd—“What is there about his word?”—captures the essence of the moment: Here is One whose authority reaches even into the unseen spiritual world and commands it.Though He ministers among His own people, Jesus is not merely a teacher of the Law or a local prophet. His authority is absolute, His identity divine. The demon's cry—“I know who you are, the Holy One of God!”—offers a strange testimony: Even the spiritual forces of darkness recognize and submit to Him. This is not just a healing; it is a confrontation between the kingdom of God and the powers of evil. And it is only the beginning.Luke includes this scene early in his Gospel to show that Jesus' mission is one of liberation—liberation from sin, bondage, and every form of darkness. The fact that this miracle occurs in a synagogue reminds us that no place, however sacred, is immune to the presence of evil. But more importantly, it reminds us that no evil is immune to the authority of Christ.It is also helpful to recall the broader context. This event comes shortly after Jesus' baptism, His forty days in the desert, and His rejection in Nazareth. That rejection led Him to Capernaum, a humble fishing village that would become the center of His Galilean ministry. It is here that He will call Peter, Andrew, James, John, and Matthew—men who will carry His Gospel to the ends of the earth. Thus, what begins in a small synagogue soon echoes to the nations.Reflect today on the universal scope of Luke's Gospel, which we will hear over the coming months. Though Jesus begins within Israel, His mission reaches every soul. By beginning His ministry with a confrontation against evil, Jesus reveals that He has come not only to teach but to conquer—to break the chains of darkness and bring divine healing to the world. His Word still speaks with authority. May we listen, believe, and be set free from the evil one and all his demonic powers, so that we may help proclaim Christ's Kingdom to the ends of the earth in our own unique ways.My Lord and Holy One of God, from the very beginning of Your public ministry, You established Your divine authority over evil, revealing that You came to destroy the kingdom of darkness and to build Your Eternal Kingdom of truth and grace. Please cast out all evil and sin from my heart, so that Your reign may take full possession of my soul. Use me as You will to further Your Kingdom on earth, bringing Your light and truth to the ends of the earth, one soul at a time. Jesus, I trust in You.Image: Jesus Casts Out the Evil Spirit, by Julius Schnorr von CarolsfeldSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

The Lord returns to Nazareth and the people - trapped in the childhood past of Jesus - are unable to recognize the God at work in their midst. (Lectionary #431) August 31, 2026 - Cathedral Rectory - Superior, WI Fr. Andrew Ricci - www.studyprayserve.com  

Today’s Topics: Father Thomas Koller, OCD, joins Terry 1, 2, 3, 4) Gospel – Luke 4:16-30 – Jesus came to Nazareth, where He had grown up, and went according to His custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, He handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at Him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of Him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from His Mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the Son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,' and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'” And He said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove Him out of the town, and led Him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl Him down headlong. But He passed through the midst of them and went away. Saints in Heaven, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day

Original Postdate: September 2, 2024 === Gospel Luke 4:16-30 Jesus came to Nazareth, where he had grown up, and went according to his custom into the synagogue on the sabbath day. He stood up to read and was handed a scroll of the prophet Isaiah. He unrolled the scroll and found the passage where it was written: The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he has anointed me to bring glad tidings to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to captives and recovery of sight to the blind, to let the oppressed go free, and to proclaim a year acceptable to the Lord. Rolling up the scroll, he handed it back to the attendant and sat down, and the eyes of all in the synagogue looked intently at him. He said to them, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” And all spoke highly of him and were amazed at the gracious words that came from his mouth. They also asked, “Is this not the son of Joseph?” He said to them, “Surely you will quote me this proverb, ‘Physician, cure yourself,' and say, ‘Do here in your native place the things that we heard were done in Capernaum.'” And he said, “Amen, I say to you, no prophet is accepted in his own native place. Indeed, I tell you, there were many widows in Israel in the days of Elijah when the sky was closed for three and a half years and a severe famine spread over the entire land. It was to none of these that Elijah was sent, but only to a widow in Zarephath in the land of Sidon. Again, there were many lepers in Israel during the time of Elisha the prophet; yet not one of them was cleansed, but only Naaman the Syrian.” When the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away. Reflection One of the most fascinating things about Jesus as a messiah, someone who came to change the entire world and free us from an excessive power of evil over us. He was so ordinary. He was of the house of David, but basically the fundamental thing was he was seen as an ordinary guy, from a little not so great town, that had a shady past because many thought maybe he was illegitimate. But you look at that and he is the voice of God. This ordinary human being on the surface. But what is it about him that's so powerful? Not him or his physical life on this planet, but the God that dwelled in him and did such extraordinary healing work. Closing Prayer Father, the gift of spirit to each and every one of us is beyond measure. Yet we often look for other qualities about us that we would be more like things that were honored by our culture, that were beautiful, that were wealthy, that we have a great education. None of that is really necessary for a human being to be effective in the world, if they allow God to work through them. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Read OnlineA Holy ProvocationWhen the people in the synagogue heard this, they were all filled with fury. They rose up, drove him out of the town, and led him to the brow of the hill on which their town had been built, to hurl him down headlong. But he passed through the midst of them and went away. Luke 4:28–30What a sobering beginning to our Lord's public ministry. Shortly after His baptism in the Jordan River and the establishment of Capernaum as the center of His ministry, Jesus began calling His disciples and performing powerful miracles. News of His preaching and healing spread rapidly, reaching His hometown of Nazareth.When Jesus returned to Nazareth, those who had known Him from His youth were not prepared for what they witnessed. In the synagogue, He stood and read from the scroll of the Prophet Isaiah. It was a messianic passage foretelling the One anointed by the Spirit to bring glad tidings to the poor, liberty to captives, sight to the blind, and freedom to the oppressed. After reading, Jesus sat down and solemnly proclaimed, “Today this Scripture passage is fulfilled in your hearing.” With these words, He revealed Himself to be the long-awaited Messiah.At first, the people were amazed at the gracious words He spoke. But their awe quickly turned to confusion, then to hostility. “Is this not the son of Joseph?” they asked, unable to reconcile the divine authority they had just encountered with the humble figure they remembered from years past. Their familiarity bred contempt. Their hearts, bound by human reasoning and pride, could not accept the divine mystery standing before them.Perceiving their thoughts, Jesus addressed the unspoken demand in their hearts—the desire to see in Nazareth the same wonders He had performed elsewhere. But He offered them no signs. Instead, He offered truth, recalling that in the days of Elijah and Elisha, God's blessings were extended not to Israelites, but to Gentiles—a widow in Zarephath and a leper from Syria. This comparison deeply offended their national pride and shattered their assumptions about divine favor. Rather than receiving His rebuke with humility, they were filled with fury. The crowd attempted to kill the very One they had once known as neighbor and craftsman. Yet Jesus, untouched, “passed through the midst of them and went away.”Jesus certainly knew this would happen. In His divine wisdom, He foresaw the reaction He would receive. And in a mysterious way, He even appears to draw it out. Why? Because this holy provocation was an act of mercy. In exposing the hardness of their hearts, Jesus gave them an opportunity to confront their pride, repent, and receive the Kingdom in truth.In the months and years ahead, many of the people of Nazareth likely benefited from this initial encounter. There is little doubt that after Jesus left Nazareth, He remained the talk of the town. There is no record of Him returning. However, as He continued His public ministry, the people who had rejected Him would have continued to hear reports of His authoritative preaching and miraculous works. Some may have even traveled to nearby towns, such as Capernaum, to witness Him for themselves. In doing so, their initial rejection would have confronted them anew—forcing a choice: Either repent and believe, or grow in bitterness and confusion. Either Jesus of Nazareth was the Messiah or He was a false prophet. There could be no middle ground.Reflect today on the mysterious ways Jesus continues to provoke hearts—including your own. Sometimes His Word unsettles us not because it is harsh, but because it is true, and we are unprepared to accept it and change. The people of Nazareth teach us that we—like them—sometimes need our pride stirred up so we can see it and reject it. As you consider the people of Nazareth from that moment forward, see yourself in them. Recognize any ways that you respond with hostility to humbling truths that are hard to accept, and allow time and grace to heal you—helping you to repent and grow in gratitude for Jesus' humbling and holy provocation.My challenging Lord, You see into the depths of my heart. When I resist Your Word, provoke me in mercy. Confront my pride, reveal my blindness, and call me to repentance. May I never reject You, but always surrender with trust to the truth You offer. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image: The Brow of the Hill near Nazareth, by James Tissot  Source: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

This is day 25 of the Dog Days of Podcastinghttps://dogdaysofpodcasting.com/ Friend Of The Show Chad Burns calls in with a show review of Nazareth and The Babys  music  byRiot TV Thanks to Joe Pawlak for the $250 Penske Truck Donation! Thanks to Tim Schall for the $100 Dog Days Donation! Thanks to Ralph Miller for the $125 Penske truck donation Thanks to Dan Gerawan for the $100Penske Doation! thanks to Kirk Crawford for the $100 Dog Days donation! thanks to John Morgan for the $100 Dog Days donation! Thanks to Brian Grattidge for the $31 Dog Days donaton! Donate on Venmo @Michael-Butler-11 Joe Pawlak – $250 Penske FundDan Gerawan – $100 Penske FundJohn Morgan – $100Kirk Crawford – $50Dan Gerawan – $50Tim Schall – $50Rockbottom Rob Giglio – $30Michael Stitik – $25Gregg Brofer – $20Blake Johnston – $20Richard Fusey – $10.99Todd Cunningham – $10Steven Cohen $5Danny Borden – $5Bruce McMillan – $3 (Venmo donation id is @Michael-Butler-11) PATREON DONORS Joe Pawlak – $16.66Kirk Crawford – $12.77Patrick Shanahan – $10Brian Springer – $8Jon Scott – $8Michael Street – $7.50Dave Slusher – $5.55Robert Harvey – $5Chiaki Hinohara – $5 MedakiMetal on InstagramMike Dixon – $5Jamie Jefford – $5Erik Klein – $5Paul Smith – $5Justin Lefkowitz – $5Steve Trice – $5James Shapiro – $5Martin Clawley – $5Nadi Itani – $5Eric Stowell – $4Mike Hellyer – 4 poundsMark Mazzel – $3Adrian Boschan – $2Amelia Bowen – $2RnR Pleeb – $1.423Legs4wheels – $1Arne Stach – $1 Paypal Donors Michael Street – $25 Beer for the tripRichard Strom – $20Dave Franco – $20Steven Laperriere – $20Jason Shepard – $10Jeff and Cheri Thieleke – $10School Of Podcasting – $10Bradley Lisko – $10Ralph Miller – $10William Bealle – $10Benjamin Mueller – $5Vincent Crimi – $5Jon Tennis – $5Gregg Long – $5Andrew Howe – $5Christopher Del Grande – $5Jayce Lesniewski – $5Peter Spark $5John Ofenloch – $5Rachel Rosenberg – $5Adam Croft – $2Deborah Dreyfus – $2Chad Kiffmeyer – $2Kai Matsuda – $2Brian Grattidge – $2William Moffett – $2Lasse Satvedthagen – $2Dave Alexander – $2 Steve Trice – $5 James Shapiro – $5Martin Clawley – $5Nadi Itani – $5Eric Stowell – $4Mike Hellyer – 4 poundsMark Mazzel – $3Adrian Boschan – $2Amelia Bowen – $2RnR Pleeb – $1.423Legs4wheels – $1Arne Stach – $1 Paypal Donors Michael Street – $25 Beer for the tripRichard Strom – $20Dave Franco – $20Steven Laperriere – $20Jason Shepard – $10Jeff and Cheri Thieleke – $10School Of Podcasting – $10Bradley Lisko – $10Ralph Miller – $10William Bealle – $10Benjamin Mueller – $5Vincent Crimi – $5Jon Tennis – $5Gregg Long – $5Andrew Howe – $5Christopher Del Grande – $5Jayce Lesniewski – $5Peter Spark $5John Ofenloch – $5Rachel Rosenberg – $5Adam Croft – $2Deborah Dreyfus – $2Chad Kiffmeyer – $2Kai Matsuda – $2Brian Grattidge – $2William Moffett – $2Lasse Satvedthagen – $2Dave Alexander – $2The post Nazareth/Babys Show Review – DDOP2026 Day 25 first appeared on The Rock and Roll Geek Show.

Friends of the Rosary,Today, we celebrate Our Lady of Częstochowa, the Black Madonna, the icon of Jasna Góra, enshrined in Częstochowa, Poland.This icon was traditionally believed to have been painted by St. Luke the Evangelist on a cypress wood panel from a table used by the Holy Family in Nazareth, which Jesus himself built.It was discovered by St. Helen, mother of Emperor Constantine and collector of Christian relics in the Holy Land. It was brought to Poland in the 14th century, where it is still, and is associated with several miraculous events and spontaneous healings.After the liberation of Poland from Nazi occupation, 1.5 million people gathered at Jasna Góra in 1945 to rededicate the nation to the Immaculate Heart of Mary. Pope John Paul II visited the image of Our Lady of Częstochowa four times during his pontificate. Our Lady's intercession is also credited with the liberation of Poland from Communist rule.The holy painting enshrined at Częstochowa has been a lighthouse of hope and a pilgrimage destination for centuries. Today, the Shrine of Our Lady of Częstochowa attracts millions who love and honor Our Lady's intercession.Ave Maria!Come, Holy Spirit, come!To Jesus through Mary!Here I am, Lord; I come to do your will.Please give us the grace to respond with joy!+ Mikel Amigot w/ María Blanca | RosaryNetwork.com, New YorkEnhance your faith with the new Holy Rosary University app:Apple iOS | New! Android Google Play• ⁠August 26, 2026, Today's Rosary on YouTube | Daily broadcast at 7:30 pm ET

Today’s Topics: 1, 2, 3, 4) Father Thomas Koller joins Terry Gospel – John 1:45-51 – Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the One about Whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus Son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Nathanael said to Him, “How do you know me?”  Jesus answered and said to him, “Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree.” Nathanael answered Him, “Rabbi, You are the Son of God; You are the King of Israel.” Jesus answered and said to him, “Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this.” And he said to him, “Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Memorial of Saint Bartholomew, Apostle Saint Bartholomew, pray for us! Bishop Sheen quote of the day

Original Post Date: August 24, 2024 === Gospel John 1:45-51 Philip found Nathanael and told him, "We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth." But Nathanael said to him, "Can anything good come from Nazareth?" Philip said to him, "Come and see." Jesus saw Nathanael coming toward him and said of him, "Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him." Nathanael said to him, "How do you know me?" Jesus answered and said to him, "Before Philip called you, I saw you under the fig tree." Nathanael answered him, "Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel." Jesus answered and said to him, "Do you believe because I told you that I saw you under the fig tree? You will see greater things than this." And he said to him, "Amen, amen, I say to you, you will see heaven opened and the angels of God ascending and descending on the Son of Man.” Reflection The message here is the kingdom of God. What is it? How does one experience it? It has come to us through a human being called Jesus, and when he's introduced to the imagination of Nathaniel, Nathaniel first judges where he came from. But then he listens, and he pays attention, and what he sees and feels is someone who knows him, knows everything about him. And when he feels that connection, that beautiful union connection that we have with Jesus, then Jesus will be able to reveal to him who he really is. The message of God to the people that long for the one who can save them. Closing Prayer Father, our journey is to continually go back to you and to open our hearts to you. We read stories about you, but you've promise something much more than that. You've promised you will dwell within us. We can go to you and feel your presence and listen to you. You know us. You live in us. You invite us to work with you to save the world. Help us to see you in that way. And we ask this in Jesus' name, Amen. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

You're probably familiar with this story from the beginning of Jesus' ministry: Luke 4:16-2016 And he came to Nazareth, where he had been brought up. And as was his custom, he went to the synagogue on the Sabbath day, and he stood up to read. 17 And the scroll of the prophet Isaiah was given to him. He unrolled the scroll and found the place where it was written,18 “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me,     because he has anointed me     to proclaim good news to the poor. He has sent me to proclaim liberty to the captives     and recovering of sight to the blind,     to set at liberty those who are oppressed,19 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor.”And then it says this20 And he rolled up the scroll and gave it back to the attendant and sat down. And the eyes of all in the synagogue were fixed on him. Very familiar story for a lot of us who have read the gospels. Made a lot of people unhappy, but it was a very positive message: the first time Jesus came, as you know, His purpose was to set people free. Free from the devil, free from their sicknesses, free from their sin.But did you know he didn't finish His sentence? He pulled open the book of Isaiah, started reading at chapter 61, and He stopped at a comma. Let's go look at the original words. Isaiah 61, starting at verse 1The Spirit of the Lord God is upon me,     because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the poor;     he has sent me to bind up the brokenhearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives,     and the opening of the prison to those who are bound;2 to proclaim the year of the Lord's favor,And that's where Jesus stopped reading, but here's what came next in the original passage:    and the day of vengeance of our GodThat was the part He left out. And why? Because that wasn't His mission in His first coming. The Day of Vengeance of Our God would be reserved for His Second Coming. And that's what I want to talk about today on the God and His Prophets podcast.Watch these episodes at my Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/@LukeTaylorPodcastsNeed to get in touch with me? Reach me at GodAndHisProphetsPodcast@gmail.comIf you're looking for a Bible study podcast that goes deep into the major and minor prophets, God and His Prophets offers a verse by verse Bible study through these powerful Old Testament writings. Each episode explores the prophecy in the Bible, from the Book of Ezekiel study and later in Zechariah, helping listeners in understanding prophetic books and seeing their relevance today. We also connect the prophets' words to end times Bible teaching and highlight connections to Revelation, giving you a Christian Bible commentary that equips you for spiritual insight and growth.

COMMENTAIRE DE L'ÉVANGILE DU JOURJn 1, 45-51En ce temps-là, Philippe trouve Nathanaël et lui dit : « Celui dont il est écrit dans la loi de Moïse et chez les Prophètes, nous l'avons trouvé : c'est Jésus fils de Joseph, de Nazareth. » Nathanaël répliqua : « De Nazareth peut-il sortir quelque chose de bon ? » Philippe répond : « Viens, et vois. » Lorsque Jésus voit Nathanaël venir à lui, il déclare à son sujet : « Voici vraiment un Israélite : il n'y a pas de ruse en lui. » Nathanaël lui demande : « D'où me connais-tu ? » Jésus lui répond : « Avant que Philippe t'appelle, quand tu étais sous le figuier, je t'ai vu. » Nathanaël lui dit : « Rabbi, c'est toi le Fils de Dieu ! C'est toi le roi d'Israël ! » Jésus reprend : « Je te dis que je t'ai vu sous le figuier, et c'est pour cela que tu crois ! Tu verras des choses plus grandes encore. » Et il ajoute : « Amen, amen, je vous le dis : vous verrez le ciel ouvert, et les anges de Dieu monter et descendre au-dessus du Fils de l'homme. » 

Read OnlineYou Are the Son of God!Philip found Nathanael and told him, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.” But Nathanael said to him, “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” Philip said to him, “Come and see.” John 1:45–46The name “Bartholomew” is listed in the Synoptic Gospels as one of Jesus' chosen Twelve Apostles. His name means, “son of Tolmai.”In John's Gospel, he is traditionally identified as Nathanael. It's possible that his full name was Nathanael, son of Tolmai. In John's Gospel, Andrew and John—two fishermen from Capernaum—were the first to be called by Jesus. Andrew then told his friend Philip, who subsequently told Nathanael, “We have found the one about whom Moses wrote in the law, and also the prophets, Jesus son of Joseph, from Nazareth.”Nathanael's immediate response was one of doubt: “Can anything good come from Nazareth?” This reflected the fact that Nazareth was a small and seemingly insignificant town at that time; moreover, the Messiah was expected to come from Bethlehem, the City of David. Neither Philip nor Nathanael knew Jesus had actually been born in Bethlehem. Yet Philip's response opened the door to a dramatic transformation in Nathanael's life: “Come and see.”Because Nathanael was open, he did go to see Jesus. When Jesus saw him approaching, He said, “Here is a true child of Israel. There is no duplicity in him.” Jesus had seen Nathanael sitting under a fig tree earlier, and upon revealing this, Nathanael responded in a way that must have surprised even himself: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”According to ancient tradition, after Pentecost, Nathanael evangelized in regions that included India, Armenia, and Mesopotamia, ultimately giving his life as a martyr, possibly by being flayed alive. What a change from his initial skepticism to his final act of witness! Little did Nathanael realize that the humble carpenter from Nazareth would change not only his life, but the entire world.As we honor Saint Bartholomew today, ponder the one quality Jesus attributed to him: “There is no duplicity in him.” To be without duplicity is to be sincere, honest, and transparent before God and others. It is to possess an integrity of heart that seeks the truth and responds wholeheartedly when that truth is revealed. Bartholomew's journey from skepticism to a bold profession of faith reveals the transformation that takes place in a soul open to grace. His life teaches us that God can use even our hesitation to draw us deeper into faith if we are only willing to “come and see.”In what ways do you hesitate in your response to God? Today, we do not meet Jesus for the first time, as did Bartholomew. We know Him through prayer, through the witness of the saints, and especially through the Sacred Scriptures. There are many profound and life-altering truths contained in God's Word. We are called to approach these truths as disciples ready to be transformed. Like Nathanael, we may initially struggle with doubt, indifference, or preconceived notions, but the invitation stands: “Come and see.” Jesus continues to reveal Himself to us in countless ways, if we are only open. If we approach Him with sincerity and without duplicity, He will speak to our hearts, reveal our true selves to us, and call us into deeper communion with Him.Reflect today on the witness of Saint Bartholomew's life. See in him any hesitation you may have about wholeheartedly following Christ. With him, come and see our Lord. Seek Him in prayer and in His Word. Let Him speak to your heart. Approach Him without duplicity. Be open, attentive, sincere, and honest. And when He speaks, do not hesitate to follow Him, declaring with Saint Bartholomew: “Rabbi, you are the Son of God; you are the King of Israel.”My humble Lord, You did not present Yourself to Nathanael as a powerful king or a mighty military leader, but as a humble resident of Nazareth. Yet upon meeting You with an open heart, Nathanael made a life-changing profession of faith in You. Like Saint Bartholomew, may I always come to You with an open and sincere heart. And when You come to me, grant me the grace to cry out with conviction and love, “You are the Son of God!” Jesus, I trust in You.Image: St. Bartolomew the apostle in the church, by Nicola ColonnaSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

CESAREA PHILIPPI - At a press conference in northern Palestine, Jesus of Nazareth revealed the blueprints of a brand new building project. Everyone was shocked when Jesus told them the name of the Apostle who would be the foundation.

We continue the Gospel of Mark's fast-moving account of the fascinating life of Jesus of Nazareth. Gospel of Mark available at https://amzn.to/3X3m9Ba Historical Jesus books available at https://amzn.to/43rnYbq ENJOY Ad-Free content, Bonus episodes, and Extra materials when joining our growing community on https://patreon.com/markvinet SUPPORT this channel by purchasing any product on Amazon using this FREE entry LINK https://amzn.to/3POlrUD (Amazon gives us credit at NO extra charge to you). Mark's video channel: https://youtube.com/c/TIMELINE_MarkVinet Website: https://markvinet.com/podcast Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/mark.vinet.9 X (twitter): https://twitter.com/HistoricalJesu Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/denarynovels Mark's Books: https://amzn.to/3k8qrGM Audio Credit: Bible Audio narration: Book of Mark-Chapter 3 (WordProject, International Biblical Association). Audio excerpts reproduced under the Fair Use (Fair Dealings) Legal Doctrine for purposes such as criticism, comment, teaching, education, scholarship, research and news reporting. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

John Bergsma, author and illustrator of Bible Basics for Catholics, joins the Son Rise Morning Show to explore the calling of Nathanael, whose feast day is August 24. Looking at John 1:43–51, Bergsma explains the meaning of Nathanael's name, why he was also known as Bartholomew, and why Nathanael initially questioned whether anything good could come from Nazareth. He also unpacks the fascinating biblical significance of Jesus seeing Nathanael under the fig tree and how that imagery points to the Messianic age and Jesus' identity as the promised Messiah.Support the show: https://www.sacredheartradio.com/donate-now/See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

For two thousand years, we've known Jesus as Messiah, Son of God, Lord and Savior. But somewhere along the way, another Jesus largely disappeared from view: Jesus the Teacher. In this message from a Sunday Gathering sermon, we explore what happened to that Jesus and why recovering him matters now. Drawing on Robert's forthcoming book, The Teacher: Reclaiming the Original Message of Jesus of Nazareth, we'll return to the Gospels and encounter a Jesus who taught an astonishing vision of how to be in this world and why it matters now. ___________________________ Since 1993, our purpose has been to help with both the theory and practical application of A Course in Miracles. We are the publisher of the Complete and Annotated Edition of the Course (known as the "CE"), which is available as a revised hardcover*, ebook*, and via Audible. Our work grows out of our commitment to be as faithful as possible to what A Course in Miracles says, years of dedication to walking this path ourselves, and a desire to see the Course's purpose realized in the lives of students and in the world. You are invited to download the free ACIM CE App to read, search, or listen to the Course wherever you are in the world, by following the instructions at https://acimce.app/ Whether you are new to ACIM or you've been a student for many years, you are welcome to join our online community and learning platform to access a vast collection of resources designed to help you understand and apply Course teachings in everyday life: https://community.circleofa.org/ To submit a question or suggest a topic for a future podcast episode, please email info@circleofa.org. If you enjoyed this podcast, please consider subscribing and leaving a review, as this will help us reach other listeners. You are also welcome to make a donation to help support our work at circleofa.org/donate. *Amazon affiliate links

Rev. Doug Rice (08/16/2026) Sunday Morning Service. To financially support this ministry, please click here to visit our Tithe.ly site. 

Why is it that people can have the truth standing directly in front of them and still fail to recognize it? In Matthew 13 and 14, we see a powerful principle: the condition of the heart can distort what the eyes see. When Jesus returned to His hometown, the people were astonished by His wisdom and mighty works, yet they could not get past their familiarity with Him. They knew His family. They knew where He had grown up. To them, He was still "the carpenter's son." Instead of allowing the evidence to change their perception of Jesus, they forced Jesus back into the category in which they had always placed Him. Their familiarity became a stumbling block that contributed to their unbelief. Then Matthew takes us immediately to Herod and Herodias. Herod hears about Jesus, but his guilty conscience causes him to conclude that John the Baptist has risen from the dead. Herodias sees John not as God's prophet, but as a threat because John exposed the sin she wanted to protect. Herod himself knows the people regard John as a prophet, yet fear, guilt, political pressure, and the opinions of others influence his actions. Nazareth looked through the lens of familiarity. Herod looked through the lens of guilt and fear. Herodias looked through the lens of rebellion and unrepentant sin. Different lenses—but the same result: distorted perception. In this message, Pastor Brandon Holthaus examines how familiarity, pride, guilt, fear, past experiences, and unrepentant sin can cause us to misinterpret people and even miss what God is doing right in front of us. Matthew 13:53–58

Why is it that people can have the truth standing directly in front of them and still fail to recognize it? In Matthew 13 and 14, we see a powerful principle: the condition of the heart can distort what the eyes see. When Jesus returned to His hometown, the people were astonished by His wisdom and mighty works, yet they could not get past their familiarity with Him. They knew His family. They knew where He had grown up. To them, He was still “the carpenter's son.” Instead of allowing the evidence to change their perception of Jesus, they forced Jesus back into the category in which they had always placed Him. Their familiarity became a stumbling block that contributed to their unbelief. Then Matthew takes us immediately to Herod and Herodias. Herod hears about Jesus, but his guilty conscience causes him to conclude that John the Baptist has risen from the dead. Herodias sees John not as God's prophet, but as a threat because John exposed the sin she wanted to protect. Herod himself knows the people regard John as a prophet, yet fear, guilt, political pressure, and the opinions of others influence his actions. Nazareth looked through the lens of familiarity. Herod looked through the lens of guilt and fear. Herodias looked through the lens of rebellion and unrepentant sin. Different lenses—but the same result: distorted perception. In this message, Pastor Brandon Holthaus examines how familiarity, pride, guilt, fear, past experiences, and unrepentant sin can cause us to misinterpret people and even miss what God is doing right in front of us. The question is not simply, “What am I looking at?” The deeper question is: “What is happening in my heart that is determining how I see it?”   #Matthew13 #Matthew14 #DistortedPerception #JesusChrist #JohnTheBaptist #BibleTeaching #BibleStudy #ChristianSermon #BiblicalTruth #PastorBrandonHolthaus #RockHarborChurch

Ref.: JProf. Dr. Stefan Laurs, Juniorprofessor für Fundamentaltheologie und Dogmatik, Vallendar Maria von Nazareth - wer war diese Frau, von der die katholische Kirche sagt, dass sie gleichzeitig die Mutter von Jesus Christus war und Jungfrau war? In diesem Grundkurs des Glaubens führt der Dogmatiker und Fundamentaltheologe Stefan Laurs an Maria, die Mutter Jesu, heran. Er erklärt ausgehend von der Bibel und der Verehrungstradition, was wir über Maria wissen und wer Maria, die Mutter Jesu für uns ist.

What if the problems around you aren't actually related to you? Graham opens with David's confession in the face of overwhelming forces — a God so unconcerned by the enemy that He sets a table on the battlefield: "picnic first, great fight second." Discover why the Lord is looking for warriors, champions, and game changers with an identity rooted in majesty — people who take situations by the scruff of the neck, displace the enemy in their own locality, and turn a Tuesday night into a Saturday night. Then Graham lands on a prophetic word: this is your time to arise, because your promises, prophecies, scriptures, visions, and dreams are your currency — "more significant than the circumstances that you're facing."Key Scriptures:- Psalm 23:5-6. "You prepare a table before me in the presence of my enemies; You anoint my head with oil; my cup overflows. Surely goodness and mercy will follow me all the days of my life, and I will dwell in the house of the LORD forever."- Acts 10:38. "God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power, and He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with Him."- 2 Corinthians 1:20. "For as many as are the promises of God, in Him they are yes; therefore also through Him is our Amen to the glory of God through us."- 2 Corinthians 3:17. "Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty."Want to explore more?

IT'S HERE! Pre-Order the 4th installment of the Ashtown Burial Series at ashtownburials.com.In Doug's continued dialogue with Ehud, Wilson's talk about the 'King of the Jews' ... According to the “Christ-killer” taunt that some misguided souls have leveled at the Jews, the idea is that the Jewish people are collectively and uniquely responsible for the execution of their Messiah, Jesus of Nazareth. I will discuss the full range of that word uniquely a bit later in this letter.For more from Doug, subscribe to Canon+: https://canonplus.com/  

NO OTHER NAME - ACTS 4:1-12 - BRIAN SUMNER - 2026ACTS 4:1-12 "Now as they spoke to the people, the priests, the captain of the temple, and the Sadducees came upon them, 2 being greatly disturbed that they taught the people and preached in Jesus the resurrection from the dead. 3 And they laid hands on them, and put them in custody until the next day, for it was already evening. 4 However, many of those who heard the word believed; and the number of the men came to be about five thousand.Addressing the Sanhedrin5 And it came to pass, on the next day, that their rulers, elders, and scribes, 6 as well as Annas the high priest, Caiaphas, John, and Alexander, and as many as were of the family of the high priest, were gathered together at Jerusalem. 7 And when they had set them in the midst, they asked, “By what power or by what name have you done this?”8 Then Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said to them, “Rulers of the people and elders of Israel: 9 If we this day are judged for a good deed done to a helpless man, by what means he has been made well, 10 let it be known to you all, and to all the people of Israel, that by the name of Jesus Christ of Nazareth, whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead, by Him this man stands here before you whole. 11 This is the ‘stone which was rejected by you builders, which has become the chief cornerstone.' 12 Nor is there salvation in any other, for there is no other name under heaven given among men by which we must be saved.”To support this channel and partner with Brian in Ministryhttps://www.briansumner.net/support/For more on Brianhttp://www.briansumner.nethttps://www.instagram.com/BRIANSUMNER/https://www.facebook.com/BRIANSUMNEROFFICIALTo listen to Brians Podcast, click below.https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast...Purchase Brians Marriage book at https://www.amazon.com/Never-Fails-Da...Brian is a full time "Urban Missionary" both locally and internationally with a focus on MISSIONS - MARRIAGES - MINISTRY. Since coming to faith in 2004 doors continued opening locally and internationally to do more and more ministry with a focus on Evangelism, Outreach Missions, Marriage, Counsel, Schools, Festivals, Conferences and the like.  Everything about this ministry is made possible because of people personally partnering through the non profit. God Bless and thank you. †Support the showSUPPORT THE SHOW

Join us as we dig deeper into last Sunday's sermon from Pastor Gabe Kasper "The Gospel for the Gentiles" and hear from Amy Duncan and Nate Zuellig on "Praise The Lord Forever". Digging Deeper Questions: Who is someone that helped you grow in your faith?   Has there been a time where you felt clear on what God was calling you to do? How did you respond? How did it go?   Jesus is the God who comes to us. Where have you seen Jesus meet you? Scripture Reading: Acts 10:1-16, 34-48 1 At Caesarea there was a man named Cornelius, a centurion of what was known as the Italian Cohort, 2 a devout man who feared God with all his household, gave alms generously to the people, and prayed continually to God. 3 About the ninth hour of the day he saw clearly in a vision an angel of God come in and say to him, "Cornelius." 4 And he stared at him in terror and said, "What is it, Lord?" And he said to him, "Your prayers and your alms have ascended as a memorial before God. 5 And now send men to Joppa and bring one Simon who is called Peter. 6 He is lodging with one Simon, a tanner, whose house is by the sea." 7 When the angel who spoke to him had departed, he called two of his servants and a devout soldier from among those who attended him, 8 and having related everything to them, he sent them to Joppa.   9 The next day, as they were on their journey and approaching the city, Peter went up on the housetop about the sixth hour to pray. 10 And he became hungry and wanted something to eat, but while they were preparing it, he fell into a trance 11 and saw the heavens opened and something like a great sheet descending, being let down by its four corners upon the earth. 12 In it were all kinds of animals and reptiles and birds of the air. 13 And there came a voice to him: "Rise, Peter; kill and eat." 14 But Peter said, "By no means, Lord; for I have never eaten anything that is common or unclean." 15 And the voice came to him again a second time, "What God has made clean, do not call common." 16 This happened three times, and the thing was taken up at once to heaven.   34 So Peter opened his mouth and said: "Truly I understand that God shows no partiality, 35 but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him. 36 As for the word that he sent to Israel, preaching good news of peace through Jesus Christ (he is Lord of all), 37 you yourselves know what happened throughout all Judea, beginning from Galilee after the baptism that John proclaimed: 38 how God anointed Jesus of Nazareth with the Holy Spirit and with power. He went about doing good and healing all who were oppressed by the devil, for God was with him. 39 And we are witnesses of all that he did both in the country of the Jews and in Jerusalem. They put him to death by hanging him on a tree, 40 but God raised him on the third day and made him to appear, 41 not to all the people but to us who had been chosen by God as witnesses, who ate and drank with him after he rose from the dead. 42 And he commanded us to preach to the people and to testify that he is the one appointed by God to be judge of the living and the dead. 43 To him all the prophets bear witness that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name."   44 While Peter was still saying these things, the Holy Spirit fell on all who heard the word. 45 And the believers from among the circumcised who had come with Peter were amazed, because the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out even on the Gentiles. 46 For they were hearing them speaking in tongues and extolling God. Then Peter declared, 47 "Can anyone withhold water for baptizing these people, who have received the Holy Spirit just as we have?" 48 And he commanded them to be baptized in the name of Jesus Christ. Then they asked him to remain for some days. Intro/Outro Song: "Only One" Nate Zuellig ULC Artist In Residence    "Praise The Lord Forever" Pat Barrett CCLI Song # 7260101   CCLI License # 11254293

“Obituaries are about life, about the lives that people have lived. Death only figures in one sentence.” — Sam Roberts This is, remarkably, episode 3,000 of Keen On America — three thousand conversations since the show launched on TechCrunch in 2010. Fitting, then, that today's guest has written nearly 1,500 obituaries for the New York Times. Sam Roberts is a reporter on the Times' obituaries desk and has a new book about the art of the obit entitled Are They Dead Yet? We recorded this a week before airtime, so I began by asking who's going to die in the interim. He wasn't sure — but noted that the Times keeps 2,000 advance obituaries ready. There are, he added, never enough. Beware, though, the Rockefeller curse. Roberts wrote David Rockefeller's advance obituary, whereupon he learned that three other Times reporters had written Rockefeller advance obits — and all three were dead. (Rockefeller made it to 101.) Borrowing from Citizen Kane, Roberts hunts for the Rosebud moment, the epiphany that defines a life. He hunts for the soul of the subject, not the résumé. Hence his cheerful paradox that obituaries are about life, whereas death only figures in one sentence. As for famous last words, he's a skeptic — most were composed later by better writers. The real ones, he suspects, are “help,” or “get me a drink.” And the obituarist's own Rosebud moment? We have to go back to Brooklyn when he was a six-year-old boy. His father walked him to the corner to watch the Rosenberg funeral procession pass. “I want you to see history as it's happening,” he explained. Half a century later, Roberts got David Greenglass to admit he had lied about the testimony that sent his own sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair. From the Times' Portraits of Grief after 9/11, Roberts learned the book's deepest lesson. There are no ordinary lives. Who would you miss more — your mayor or your mailman? Or maybe your obit writer (or even your podcaster)? Sam promised that if he died before airtime, he'd call. The phone hasn't rung. I'm still going too. On to episode 3,001. Five Takeaways •       2,000 Obits, Never Enough. The Times keeps some 2,000 advance obituaries on file, regularly updated — and people still surprise the desk (and presumably themselves) by dying unexpectedly. Print once had a deadline or two a day; now there's a deadline every minute. The occupational hazards are real: three Times reporters wrote advance obits of David Rockefeller and predeceased him — Roberts, the fourth, survived to see his run when Rockefeller died at 101. And the genre changes its readers: “no man who has seen his own obit is ever the same again.” Alfred Nobel, mistakenly obituarized as dynamite's merchant of death, endowed the Nobel Prizes in response — proof that a premature obituary can be the most consequential document a man ever reads.•       The Rosebud Method. Roberts' organizing device comes from Citizen Kane: the Rosebud moment, the epiphany — a teacher, a meeting, an accident — that changed the trajectory of a life and made it worth recording. The model, via The Economist's Ann Wroe, is the soul rather than the stenography: Wikipedia has the chronology; the obituary hunts the essence. Advance obits are never vetted by their subjects — facts checked, yes; the portrait, never — because an obituary is a news story, not a eulogy. And the form's great secret is optimism: obituaries are about life. Death gets one sentence. (Famous last words, meanwhile, are mostly posthumous fiction. The real ones: “help,” or “get me a drink.”)•       Giuliani, Trump, Epstein. The hardest working file on Roberts' desk: Rudy Giuliani — aggressive prosecutor, the mayor who proved New York governable, then a bitter Trump apologist indicted under the same statutes he once used on mobsters. How do you compress that into a lead paragraph? Andrew's suggestion — a narrative of somebody who had a soul and then sold it — requires Shakespeare; Roberts insists on newspaper objectivity, omitting nothing and editorializing never. The Trump obituary already exists (its subject, Roberts guesses, would sue). And context keeps moving after death: Bush the defeated loser became Bush the elder statesman; Epstein's reputation kept falling posthumously. Of the 150,000 people who die each day, three or four make the Times.•       The Rosenberg Rosebud. Roberts' own epiphany arrived at age six, on a Brooklyn street corner where his father took him to watch the Rosenberg funeral procession: “I want you to see history as it's happening.” His family otherwise met death with denial — six months after his father died, an aunt asked how Arthur was doing could only answer “so-so.” The Rosenberg thread ran through his whole career: decades later, for his book The Brother, David Greenglass admitted to Roberts that he had lied about the most incriminating testimony against his sister Ethel — evidence that, truthfully given, would likely have spared her the electric chair. When Roberts assigned graduate students to write his own advance obituary, none of them led with that. He would.•       No Ordinary Lives. From Portraits of Grief — the Times' profiles of virtually every victim of the World Trade Center attack — Roberts drew the book's central lesson: there are no ordinary lives. Who would you miss more, your mayor or your mailman? Carlyle asked whether history belongs to Hannibal or to the anonymous man who invented the spade. The desk has honored the principle in both directions: a front-page obituary for Hercule Poirot (the most famous Belgian, as Andrew noted), and a Jesus of Nazareth obituary written as the Times would have run it in AD 33 — ending, for lack of further confirmation, with the report that he was buried and his body disappeared. No beat generates more reader feedback. “As long as they're reading it, I'm happy.” About the Guest Sam Roberts is a fifty-year veteran of New York journalism, an obituaries reporter and former Urban Affairs correspondent at the New York Times, and the host of the Times' “Close Up,” which he inaugurated in 1992. His many books include The Brother, Grand Central, A History of New York in 101 Objects, and Only in New York. A history adviser to Federal Hall, he lives in New York with his wife and two sons. Are They Dead Yet? The Art of the Obit (Bloomsbury, August 11, 2026) draws on the nearly 1,500 obituaries he has written for the Times. References: •       Are They Dead Yet? The Art of the Obit by Sam Roberts (Bloomsbury, August 11, 2026). Carl Hiaasen: “Mordantly wonderful.” Roz Chast: “I almost died laughing.”•       The Brother by Sam Roberts — in which David Greenglass admitted lying about the testimony that sent his sister, Ethel Rosenberg, to the electric chair.•...

Join Scott Hamilton, 1984 USA Olympic gold medal winning figure skater and Olympic broadcaster, along with our host and Christian Crusaders Executive Director, Matt Reisetter, for a Q&A following Scott's message at the 105th Cedar Falls Bible Conference.For a link to the YouTube video of this episode, click here: For a link to a video Scott's message to the Cedar Falls Bible Conference, via CFBC's YouTube page, visit https://www.youtube.com/live/fJgC3yRXcm0 (Friday evening, 7/31/2026).For more information about Christian Crusaders, the ministry under which CC Podcasts are produced: Conversations is produced, visit https://christiancrusaders.org.Also, check out our other podcasts:To listen to The CC Podcast: Daily Dose Devotions, where we're currently going through an overview of the Bible, click here: https://christiancrusaders.org/ccpod-....To listen to our weekly radio broadcast, The CC Broadcast, which has aired since 1936, and which features a 30 minute worship service, including music and preaching, click here: https://christiancrusaders.org/the-cc....To listen to Homer Larsen Live, an archive of Pastor Homer Larsen's sermons preached live at Nazareth Church, click here: https://christiancrusaders.org/homer-.... (Pastor Larsen was radio preacher for CC for over 50 years, and also served as Senior Pastor at Nazareth -- many of his radio broadcasts, dating back to the early 2000s, are archived on The CC Broadcast, but this set of sermons are the ones he preached live from the pulpit.)Thanks to Terri, our intro/outro announcer!Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

There is a curious notion that if we are faithful enough, wise enough, or holy enough, the storms of life will somehow pass us by. Yet Our Lord never promised calm seas. He promised His presence. The storm is not evidence that God has abandoned us; often it is the very place where He teaches us to trust Him. When St. Peter stepped from the boat, he accomplished the impossible. He walked upon the water—not because the waves had ceased or the wind had surrendered, but because his eyes were fixed upon Christ. The miracle was never that the sea became gentle. The miracle was that faith proved stronger than the storm. It was only when Peter measured the size of the waves instead of the greatness of the Savior that fear found its opening. The wind had not grown stronger; his gaze had simply wandered. How often we make the same mistake. We count our troubles more carefully than we count God's promises. We become experts on the waves. Yet anxiety has never calmed a sea, and fear has never carried a soul across the water.Our parish mission boldly calls us to “Be Faithful Like Mary.” Those few words contain a lifetime of wisdom. The Blessed Mother did not live a life free from storms. She knew uncertainty at Bethlehem, sorrow in Egypt, misunderstanding in Nazareth, and unspeakable grief beneath the Cross. But through every trial, her heart remained fixed upon the Lord. She did not pretend the storms were small; she simply knew that God was greater. Her faith was not the absence of suffering but the refusal to let suffering have the final word. To be faithful like Mary, then, is not to ask God for fewer storms, but for steadier eyes. It is to look beyond the crashing waves and behold the One who commands both wind and sea. The Christian's peace is never found in favorable weather; it is found in the presence of a person. As long as Christ remains the object of our gaze, no storm can ultimately overcome us.The waves will rise again. The winds will surely blow. They always do. But if we keep our eyes on Jesus, and if, like Mary, we remain faithful whatever the weather, we will discover that the One who called us onto the water has never ceased holding us in His loving care. --- Help Spread the Good News --- Father Brian's homilies are shared freely thanks to generous listeners like you. If his words have blessed you, consider supporting this volunteer effort. Every gift helps us continue recording and sharing the hope of Jesus—one homily at a time. Give Here: https://frbriansoliven.org/give

Episode 4200 │ August 9, 2026 A widow threatens an unrighteous judge with a black eye until he gives her justice. Jesus asks one question after: will He find faith like that? WHAT THIS EPISODE COVERS Scott Kesterson and Brad Cummings open with Luke 18's parable of the persistent widow and the unrighteous judge — a woman with no standing in her society who refuses to leave the judge's presence until justice is rendered, framed by Jesus not as a lesson in twisting God's arm but as a question of whether faith can hold its ground when the outcome looks impossible, closing with the piercing line: when the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth? Brad works through a live personal example of standing in that same gap — a broken promise, no legal leverage, and a decision to take the matter before God as the court of final appeal rather than escalate or walk away — before moving into Luke 4, where Jesus opens His ministry in Nazareth quoting Isaiah, is initially praised, then names Elijah's widow at Zarephath and Naaman the Syrian leper as evidence that God's mercy was never confined to Israel, a statement so offensive to His hometown crowd that they try to throw Him off a cliff. The episode closes on Naaman's radical simplicity — a foreign general who knew nothing of Scripture, obeyed one instruction, and left worshipping the true God on borrowed dirt — as the model for the kind of faith that doesn't need theological sophistication, only unwavering trust in who God actually is. KEY QUESTIONS ADDRESSED  What is the difference between persistent prayer as twisting God's arm and persistent prayer as standing immovable in a place of settled peace — and why does Brad argue that most people misapply the widow's persistence as a formula rather than a posture of faith? Why did Jesus's hometown crowd go from praising His gracious words to trying to throw Him off a cliff within the same sermon — and what does His deliberate reference to Elijah's widow in Sidon and Naaman the Syrian reveal about how offensive the scope of God's mercy was to a chosen-people mindset? What did Naaman's healing require that no religious knowledge or scriptural literacy could substitute for — and why does his simple recognition that this is the true God, without a single Bible verse memorized, represent the kind of faith Jesus says He is looking for when He returns? ABOUT BARDSFM BardsFM is a daily independent podcast covering faith, liberty, history, and information warfare. Hosted by Scott Kesterson — combat veteran, documentary filmmaker, and rancher. Over 4,100 episodes and 50 million lifetime downloads. New episodes every weekday. bards.fm This episode was researched and produced under the Spatial Terra Intelligence Methodology (STIM v5) — the analytical framework built by Scott Kesterson — with AI-assisted research synthesis at a 70/30 human/AI authorship ratio, fully disclosed. All analysis, conclusions, and editorial judgments are those of Scott Kesterson. BardsFM's archive includes hundreds of episodes on prayer, scripture, and walking the Way of Christ — available free in the full episode catalog. DOWNLOADS Community Sovereignty Framework: click here AFFILIATE LINKS Bards Nation Health Store: www.bardsnationhealth.com MYPillow promo code: BARDS >> Go to https://www.mypillow.com/bards and use the promo code BARDS or... Call 1-800-975-2939.  EMPShield protect your vehicles and home. Promo code BARDS: Click here Treadlite Broadforks...best garden tool EVER. Promo code BARDS26: TreadliteBroadforks.com EnviroKlenz Air Purification, promo code BARDS to save 10%: www.enviroklenz.com Morning Intro Music Provided by Brian Kahanek: www.briankahanek.com Founders Bible 20% discount code: BARDS >>> TheFoundersBible.com Windblown Media 20% Discount with promo code BARDS: windblownmedia.com White Oak Pastures Grassfed Meats, Get $20 off any order $150 or more. Promo Code BARDS: www.whiteoakpastures.com/BARDS Mission Darkness Faraday Bags and RF Shielding. Promo code BARDS: Click here DONATIONS: If you wish to support this podcast directly you can donate here... DONATE: Click here MAILING ADDRESS: Xpedition Cafe, LLC Attn. Scott Kesterson 591 E Central Ave, #740 Sutherlin, OR  97479

Get Huel today with this exclusive offer for New Customers of 15% OFF with code alexoconnor at https://huel.com/alexoconnor (Minimum $50 purchase).For early, ad-free access to videos, and to support the channel, subscribe to my Substack: https://www.alexoconnor.com.Dallas Jenkins is an American film and television director, writer and producer. He is best known as the creator, director, co-writer and executive producer of The Chosen, the first multi-season series about the life of Jesus of Nazareth. LINKS:Watch the trailer for season six of The Chosen: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nymMxV88QyY&feature=youtu.beSeason six premieres November 15th on Prime Video, with three episodes at launch and new episodes weekly through December 6th. And the story doesn't end on streaming — the season finale arrives as a feature film, exclusively in theaters, on March 12th, 2027.Follow The Chosen:https://www.thechosen.tv/en-ushttps://www.instagram.com/thechosentvseries/https://www.tiktok.com/@thechosentv?lang=enhttps://www.facebook.com/InsideTheChosenhttps://www.youtube.com/@TheChosenSeriesFollow Dallas: https://www.facebook.com/DallasJenkinsOfficialhttps://www.instagram.com/dallas.jenkins/https://www.youtube.com/@DallasJenkinsOfficial TIMESTAMPS:(00:21) What is The Chosen's Purpose?(04:01) Is It Appropriate to Embellish the Story of Jesus?(14:05) Harmonising the Gospel Accounts(36:40) Do Actors Sometimes Theologically Disagree?(48:02) Controversial Additions to the Show(56:14) Why Didn't Jesus Heal Little James?(01:14:47) Depicting Judas Iscariot(01:33:25) The Women of The Chosen(01:40:37) Stories Left Out of the Show(01:46:58) Watching The Chosen As an AgnosticCONNECT:My Website: https://www.alexoconnor.comTwitter: http://www.twitter.com/cosmicskepticFacebook: http://www.facebook.com/cosmicskepticInstagram: http://www.instagram.com/cosmicskepticTikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@cosmicskepticBusiness email: contact@alexoconnor.comBrand enquiries: David@modernstoa.co

Sunday, 9 August 2026   A summary of Matthew Chapter 21.   Chapter 17 revealed that there is a future for Israel in God's redemptive plans. The main message of Chapter 18 was that childlike faith is required to enter into the kingdom. The final parable, that of the wicked servant, dealt with Israel's rejection of Christ's fulfillment of the law, showing that they would be delivered up until they entered the New Covenant. Chapter 19 took the reader through various topics to reveal what God prioritizes. The contrasts between law and faith were seen throughout the chapter.   Chapter 20 was a chapter filled with hints of the transition from the dispensation of the law to the dispensation of grace. It dealt with order and propriety concerning each step of the redemptive process to ensure that nothing is dealt with until the previous steps are completed.   It also presented the truth that God has made faith in what He has done the necessary condition. Nothing more can be added to it, and without meeting that one condition, there is no chance of obtaining access.   Chapter 21 continues that thought, but it deals specifically with the object of that faith, Jesus Christ. The chapter began with the details concerning Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem. He came to Bethphage, the House of Unspiced Figs.   The fig pictures a spiritual connection to God. These being unspiced picture those who have not yet received their spiritual reconnection to God. Once spiced, the connection is made.   It was said to be at the Mount of Olives. A mountain typologically refers to a large but centralized group of people. The olive is a symbol of religious privilege. The picture anticipates those who will have the spiritual connection and who will become a part of receiving religious privilege through faith in Christ.   At Bethphage, Jesus directed two disciples to find the donkey with her colt tied at her side. As seen, the female donkey signifies permanence. She represents patient endurance. The colt signifies humanity, but being a colt that was unyoked, it signifies innocence concerning the yoke of sin. It is a picture of Christ, unstained by Adam's sin, despite having come from the line of humanity.   Matthew noted that what occurred was fulfillment of prophecy, demonstrating that Jesus is the anticipated Messiah and that Scripture was being fulfilled in Him. The spreading of the garments was seen to be a recognition by the people of Jesus' kingly status and authority.   But this kingly authority was acknowledged to be the fulfillment of the messianic promises to David. The people's proclamation recognized this in the words “Hosanna! The ‘Son, David'.” It is Jesus who came in the name of Yehovah. Whether the people realized it or not, their words are the Bible's confirmation that He is Yehovah incarnate.   When Jesus entered the temple, He drove out those who defiled it with their selling and exchanging money. After all the time of the law, the corruption of the people was never satisfactorily dealt with. Jesus' cleansing of the temple proved it was so.   How could a corruptly run temple provide cleansing for the corruption of sin in the people? The answer is that it could not. It was only a shadow of what would be fully accomplished in Christ. That was confirmed in Jesus' healing of the people in the temple.   The sin of the people could not be dealt with through the temple's rites and rituals, but Jesus demonstrated that the consequences of sin could be dealt with through Him. And He demonstrated this while right at the temple complex. While He was doing these things, the children cried out, “Hosanna to the Son of David!”   When the leaders at the temple heard it, they were indignant. What did Jesus do? He cited Scripture, clearly implying that He is the fulfillment of what is recorded there. He is the purpose and point of the prophetic word. After that, Jesus went out to Bethany.   Various suggestions for the meaning of the name were given. Based on the surrounding context, it seems that House of Figs answers the imagery. Jesus left a place with an unacceptable spiritual connection to God because of its defilement and went to a place with a typological connection to God apart from that place.   That is then seen in the next verses where Jesus cursed the fig tree, saying that it would never bear fruit again. As seen, that was a picture of the temple, where He was heading, which was to lose its place as the point of mediation between God and man.   After that, the disciples were amazed at what took place concerning the fig. From there, Jesus' words were precise –   “Answering, also, the ‘Jesus', He said to them, ‘Amen, I say to you, if you should have faith, and not you should waver, not only the ‘the fig tree' you will do, but and-if the ‘mountain, this', you should say, ‘You be borne, and you be cast into the sea', it will become. 22And all, as much – if you should ask in the prayer, believing, you will receive.'”   As explained in those commentaries, the mountain is the mountain of the law, Horeb, which Paul says is the temple in Jerusalem. The prayer is the prayer of salvation, receiving Jesus, such as is indicated in Romans 10:9, 10 –   “...that if you confess with your mouth the Lord Jesus and believe in your heart that God has raised Him from the dead, you will be saved. 10 For with the heart one believes unto righteousness, and with the mouth confession is made unto salvation.”   In receiving Jesus, the burden of the mountain of the law is forever removed from that person.   In verses 23-27, there was the question of John's authority, where it came from. The chief priests and elders would not answer. In turn, Jesus did not respond to their question. The law and the prophets, completed in John, fully testify to Christ Jesus. If someone will not acknowledge the source of authority concerning those things, they will never be able to identify where Jesus' authority is derived from.   Because of their lack of willingness to proclaim what should be obvious, Jesus gave the parable of the two sons. The leaders of Israel, who are supposedly the obedient by saying they will do the things the Father directs, do not do them at all.   On the other hand, the tax collectors and harlots who supposedly rejected what the Father told them to do, ultimately do them when they come to Christ. This is because Christ is the fulfillment of all the work necessary to be saved. To say you will do God's will and not accept Jesus means you failed to do God's will.   Next came the parable of the wicked vinedressers, a parable the speaks for itself. This is so much the case that the chief priests and Pharisees knew Jesus was speaking of them. Despite their desire to lay hands on Him, they feared the multitude and did not do so. This final thought is summed up in Jesus' own words –   “Therefore My Father loves Me, because I lay down My life that I may take it again. 18 No one takes it from Me, but I lay it down of Myself. I have power to lay it down, and I have power to take it again. This command I have received from My Father.” John 10:17, 18   Jesus' time had not yet come. Therefore, until He was ready to lay down His life, obstacles to others laying their hands on Him would continue to exist.   Life application: The chapter continues the Bible's theme of the law versus grace, which comes through faith. It details the means of re-obtaining the spiritual connection to God, which is only through faith in the sinless Christ. In proclaiming Christ, salvation is realized.   Israel would lose its right to be the vineyard of God. It would be taken from them and transferred to the church, a body comprised of people of faith from around the world. All people, including those of Israel, must be willing to come to Christ to be saved.   The law was and is an ineffectual means of obtaining salvation, except as it is fulfilled in Jesus Christ. Believe today and be saved!   Lord God, thank You that the pressure and burden of the law is removed from us. Thank You that we have full, final, and forever access to You through the precious shed blood of Jesus Christ, our Lord and Savior. Amen.   Matthew 21   21 And when they neared unto Jerusalem, and they came unto Bethphage toward the ‘Mount, the Olives', then Jesus, He sent two disciples, 2Saying to them, “You go into the village, the ‘opposite you,' and immediately you will find ‘donkey, having been bound', and ‘colt, with her'. Having loosened, you bring to Me. 3And if anyone, to you, he says anything, you will say that the Lord, these – need, He has. Immediately, also, he will send them.”   4This also, all, it having become that it should be fulfilled, the ‘having been spoken through the prophet,' saying:   5“You say to the ‘daughter, Zion', ‘You behold! The ‘King, yours', He comes to you, Benignant and having been upon-stepped upon a donkey, Even upon ‘colt, son under-yoked'.'”   6Having gone, also, the disciples, and having done just as He directed them, the ‘Jesus', 7they brought the donkey and the colt, and they upon-set atop them the ‘cloaks, theirs', and He upon-sat atop them. 8The ‘also most crowd', they spread their ‘the cloaks' in the road, others, also, they chopped branches from the trees, and they strewed in the road. 9The ‘also crowds', those preceding, and those following, they croaked, saying:   “Hosanna! The ‘Son, David'! Having been blessed, the ‘coming in Name, Lord!' Hosanna in the uppermosts!”   10And having entered, He, into Jerusalem, it was shaken, all the city, saying, “Who is this?”   11The ‘also crowds', they said, “This, He is the Prophet, Jesus, the ‘from Nazareth, the Galilee'.”   12And He entered, the ‘Jesus', into the ‘temple, the God', and He ejected all those selling and buying in the temple. And the ‘tables, the coin-dealers' He overturned, and the ‘benches, those selling' the doves. 13And He says to them, “It has been written: ‘The ‘house, Mine', ‘house, prayer' it will be called.' You also, it, you made ‘cave, robbers'.”   14And they approached Him, blind and lame, in the temple, and He cured them. 15Having seen, also, the chief priests and the scribes, the ‘wonderfuls' that He did, and the boys croaking in the temple, and saying, “Hosanna! The ‘Son, David',” they outraged. 16And they said to Him, “You hear what these, they say?”   The ‘also Jesus', He says to them,   “Yes. Never, you read that, ‘From ‘mouth, infants and sucklings' You prepared praise.'?”   17And having left them, He proceeded out of the city to Bethany, and He overnighted there.   18Daybreak, also, returning to the city, He hungered. 19And having seen ‘fig tree, one' upon the road, He came upon it, and nothing, He found in it, if not leaves only. And He says to it, “Not more from you fruit it should be, to the age.” And it desiccated straightaway, the fig tree.   20And having seen, the disciples, they wondered, saying, “How, straightaway, it desiccated, the fig tree?”   21Answering, also, the ‘Jesus', He said to them, “Amen, I say to you, if you should have faith, and not you should waver, not only the ‘the fig tree' you will do, but and-if the ‘mountain, this', you should say, ‘You be borne, and you be cast into the sea', it will become. 22And all, as much – if you should ask in the prayer, believing, you will receive.”   23And having come, Him, into the temple, they approached Him teaching, the chief priests and the ‘elders, the people', saying, “In where-such authority these, You do? And who to You, He gave the authority, this?”   24Answering, also, the ‘Jesus', He said to them, “I will entreat you, I also, word one, which if you should say to Me, I also to you, I will say in where-such authority these I do. 25The ‘immersion, John', whence it was? From heaven or from men?”   These, also, they deliberated with themselves, saying, “If we should say, ‘From heaven,' He will say to us, ‘Through why, therefore, not you believed him?' 26If, also, we should say, ‘From men,' we fear the crowd, all, for, as a prophet, they have the ‘John'.” 27And answering, the ‘Jesus', they said, “Not we have known.”   He said to them, also He, “Nor I, I tell you in where-such authority these I do.”   28“What, also you, it seems? A man, he had ‘sons, two', and having approached the first, he said, ‘Son, you go this day. You work in the ‘vineyard, mine'.' 29The ‘also answering', he said, ‘Not, I will.' Afterward, also, having regretted, he went. 30Having approached, also, the second, he said as thus. The ‘also having answered', he said, ‘I, lord.' And not he went. 31Which from the two, He did the ‘determination, the father'?”   They say to him, “The first.”   He says to them, the ‘Jesus', “Amen! I say to you that the taxmen and the prostitutes, they precede you into the ‘kingdom, the God'. 32He came, namely, John to you in ‘way, righteousness,' and not you believed him. The ‘also taxmen and the prostitutes', they believed him. You, also, having seen, not you regretted afterward the ‘believe him'.”   33Another parable, you hear, “‘Man, certain', he was ‘housemaster who, he planted –vineyard', and circuited, it, he encircled, and he dug in it – winepress, and he built – tower, and he leased it to land-workers, and he abroaded*. 34When also it neared, the ‘juncture, the fruits', he sent the ‘servants, his' to the agronomists to receive the ‘fruits, his'. 35And having taken, the agronomists, the ‘servants, his', one, indeed, they scourged. One, also, they killed. One, also, they stoned. 36Again, he sent other servants, ‘greater, the first', and they did to them as thus. 37Afterward, also, he sent to them the ‘son, his', saying, ‘They will be in-turned* of the ‘son, mine'.' 38“The ‘also, agronomists', having seen the son, they said in themselves, ‘This, he is, the heir. You come, we should kill him, and we should retain the ‘inheritance, his'.' 39And having taken him, they ejected from the vineyard, and they killed.   40When, therefore, he should come, the ‘lord, the vineyard', what he will do to the agronomists, to those?”   41They say to Him, “Worthless! Badly, he will destroy them, and the vineyard, he will lease to other farmers who, they will give him the fruits in the ‘junctures, theirs'.”   42He says to them, the ‘Jesus',   “Never you read in the Scriptures? ‘Stone – which they rejected, those building – this, It has become to ‘head, corner'. From ‘Lord', it was, this, And it is marvelous in ‘eyes, ours'.'”   43“Through this, I say to you that it will be lifted from you, the ‘kingdom, the God', and it will be given to ethnicity producing the ‘fruits, it'. 44And the ‘having fallen upon the stone, this,' he will be pulverized. Upon whoever, also, if it should fall, it will winnowize* him.”   45And having heard, the chief priests and the Pharisees, His parables, they knew that concerning them, He speaks. 46And seeking Him to seize, they feared the crowds, since as ‘prophet', Him, they held.   *Verse 33 – Greek: apodémeó, to go abroad. Abroaded is a coined word. *Verse 37 – Greek: entrepó, to invert. In a good sense, to respect, in a bad one, to confound, as in put to shame. *Verse 44 – Greek: likmaó, from likmos (a basket used for winnowing). Thus, it signifies to powderize something to a state where the winds will winnow it. Winnowize is a coined word (see NAS – “it will scatter him like dust”).

Her Hidden Names by Autumn Dickson Esther's story is one of courage. She is a remarkable woman who was placed in humble circumstances and rose to save her people. In a land that often looked down upon Jews, Esther's heritage should have prevented her from being able to save her people. And yet, she rose to prominence was guided by the hand of the Lord. Here is one verse that introduces Esther and sets the foundation for what I want to talk about. Esther 2:7 And he brought up Hadassah, that is, Esther, his uncle's daughter: for she had neither father nor mother, and the maid was fair and beautiful; whom Mordecai, when her father and mother were dead, took for his own daughter. In this verse, we learn that Esther's given Hebrew name was “Hadassah.” In an effort to protect her, her name was changed to “Esther,” a Persian name. Jews were often looked down upon, discredited, and hated. Having a Persian name would have protected Esther from some of the prejudice she would face in court. There is beautiful significance in the fact that Esther changed her name. “Hadassah” means “myrtle.” The myrtle was a fragrant, humble evergreen plant often symbolizing righteousness, peace, beauty, or God's people in biblical imagery. Esther was many of these things, and she rose to represent all of her people. The name “Esther” was also significant. Its Persian roots connect it to the word “star” which she certainly rose to be. Interestingly enough, the name “Esther” also has Hebrew roots, but those Hebrew roots mean “hidden.” Esther's names, with their many meanings, all tell her story very well. It also connects her back to Christ. Esther was placed in a position to save her people. So much of her identity was “hidden” so that she could fulfill her role to save her people. Had her true identity been known, she may have been barred from being queen due to prejudice. In the Old Testament, Christ is known as Jehovah, a latinized version of “YHWH.” This means, “I am.” It is a powerful statement of our Creator. It emphasizes self-existence, sovereignty, and eternal nature. When He comes to the earth, His name is revealed to Mary as “Jesus.” Jesus is the English version of Yeshua, which is a shortened version of Yehoshua. Yehoshua means “YHWH saves.” When Christ came to earth, He did so quietly. Much of His identity was hidden. It was so hidden that the people in Nazareth, who knew Him while He was growing up, rejected Him thoroughly. They were angry when He claimed divine authority and purpose, and they tried to kill Him. If He had come in all of His glory, would things have been different? How would they have felt about Him then? If He had come in all of His glory, He might not have been rejected and put in a position to save us. On a broader note than Nazareth, many of the Jews didn't recognize Him. They were looking for a powerful rebel who would throw off the Roman empire. They did not understand that Jesus was coming to save them in a more important way. Because He didn't come in all of the glory that was due to Him, He was betrayed and rejected. And though He didn't deserve it, we needed it. We needed His true identity to be rejected so that He would be able to fulfill His atonement on our behalf. His “hidden” identity placed Him in a position to save the entirety of the human family. Let's take it a step further. Esther's hidden identity placed her in a position to save her people, but it wasn't just her hidden identity. It was also her humility. Because of her docile and peaceful nature, the king really liked her. When she entered the throne room, the king extended his scepter towards her, sparing her life. Even after being spared, her humility continued. Rather than making a big fuss in the middle of court, she invited the king and Haman to a banquet. At the banquet, her request on behalf of her people was not widely viewed. This likewise ties her to Christ. When Christ saved the world, He did it quietly and without fanfare. As He suffered in the Garden of Gethsemane, He may have had an audience on the other side of the veil, but they were likewise hidden. His only companions fell asleep, and Christ accomplished His mission humbly. When it was all over, His success remained quiet as He was betrayed and taken to die. Not even His apostles seemed to understand just what He accomplished in that garden. Both Esther and Christ had identities that were hidden that placed them in a position to save. Both Esther and Christ did so quietly and humbly, and this likewise enabled them to fulfill their missions. What does this mean for us? Each of us has a mission given to us by the Lord. We made promises before we came here. The Lord can place us in the position we need to be in to set us up for our mission. Regardless of whether we are born as an exiled, lowly orphan or born in a stable, He has the power to place us exactly where we need to be. Though it is counterintuitive, sometimes it is the very humble circumstances we are given that enables us to fulfill our own personal missions. Christ utilized kings like Cyrus and Hezekiah to save His people, but He also used those in the humblest circumstances to save His people. None of your circumstances matter; those are easy enough for the Lord to manipulate. What truly matters is whether you're following the Savior. Your mission may be quiet and humble, but if that is the case, then you are in good company. We don't have to go over a loudspeaker to save His people. It doesn't have to look outwardly dramatic. It doesn't have to be filmed or livestreamed or hold a huge audience. We simply have to be willing to follow the Savior, and He will lead us to do good. I testify that we can learn about Christ when we study the scriptures. I testify that everything was set up perfectly for Him to save us, not just with the alignment of circumstances in the New Testament, but also in your own personal life. There is a Plan of Salvation at large, and it has been successfully won. There is also a Plan of Salvation for you, and through the power of God, the circumstances can align for Him to save you too. We can trust Him. Autumn Dickson was born and raised in a small town in Texas. She served a mission in the Indianapolis Indiana mission. She studied elementary education but has found a particular passion in teaching the gospel. Her desire for her content is to inspire people to feel confident, peaceful, and joyful about their relationship with Jesus Christ and to allow that relationship to touch every aspect of their lives. Autumn was the recipient of FAIR's 2024 John Taylor Defender of the Faith Award. The post Come, Follow Me with FAIR – Esther – Part 2 – Autumn Dickson appeared first on FAIR.

Join David Nasser, who fled to the United States from Iran with his family as a young boy, later became a Christian, and is currently an author and preacher and resource for media outlets on a host of topics, along with our host and Christian Crusaders Executive Director, Matt Reisetter, for a Q&A during David's series of messages at the 105th Cedar Falls Bible Conference.For a link to the YouTube video of this episode, click here: https://youtu.be/tUbAR9RJgDEFor a link to a video David's messages to the Cedar Falls Bible Conference, via CFBC's YouTube page, visit https://www.youtube.com/live/Eys2YHIbgiA (Tuesday evening, 7/28/2026), https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C6HYHBB10z8 (Wednesday morning, 7/29/2026 at 9:30 am), and https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=44OSCutE6BQ (Wednesday morning, 8/29/2026 at 11 am).To visit David's website, click here: https://davidnasser.com/For more information about Christian Crusaders, the ministry under which CC Podcasts are produced: Conversations is produced, visit https://christiancrusaders.org.Also, check out our other podcasts: To listen to The CC Podcast: Daily Dose Devotions, where we're currently going through an overview of the Bible, click here: https://christiancrusaders.org/ccpod-....To listen to our weekly radio broadcast, The CC Broadcast, which has aired since 1936, and which features a 30 minute worship service, including music and preaching, click here: https://christiancrusaders.org/the-cc....To listen to Homer Larsen Live, an archive of Pastor Homer Larsen's sermons preached live at Nazareth Church, click here: https://christiancrusaders.org/homer-.... (Pastor Larsen was radio preacher for CC for over 50 years, and also served as Senior Pastor at Nazareth -- many of his radio broadcasts, dating back to the early 2000s, are archived on The CC Broadcast, but this set of sermons are the ones he preached live from the pulpit.)Thanks Terri, our intro/outro announcer! Music by Lesfm from Pixabay

If the Book of Chronicles ends with the decree of Cyrus, the Book of Ezra records what happens when the remnant steps onto the road home. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Ezra and Nehemiah form a single, continuous work, recording a second Exodus. Where the first Exodus delivered Israel from pagan bondage into a wilderness of promise, Ezra-Nehemiah records a deliverance out of pagan exile back into a ruined land, where the promise must be rebuilt stone by stone, altar by altar, and wall by wall. Covering the initial returns from Babylon under Persian decree, the narrative moves in two distinct restored foundations. First, under Zerubbabel, the exiles return to erect the altar and rebuild the Temple amidst fierce local opposition. Decades later, Ezra, a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, arrives not with masonry tools, but with Holy Scripture, tasked with the spiritual restoration of a prone-to-wander remnant. The northern kingdom is gone, and Judah is now a fragile province, yet the decisive reality is once again theological. The imperial throne of Persia is the instrument with which YHWH fulfills His sovereign word, proclaimed by the prophets. This small, vulnerable remnant is a matter of Gospel necessity. The survival of Judah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the preservation of the Davidic line in Zerubbabel ensure the stage is set for the Anointed One, Jesus of Nazareth to enter human history. Ezra sets the permanent pattern for spiritual renewal: to study the Law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it. His measure is whether a restored people will guard their hearts against compromise and order their lives around God's presence. The final word of Chronicles was an invitation to go up. Ezra proves that when God opens the way back, He provides the grace, the Word, and the shepherd needed to sustain the journey home.

Bonnie Dobson wrote the haunting folk classic “Morning Dew” in 1961, inspired by the fear of nuclear annihilation. The song would go on to be recorded by the Grateful Dead, Jeff Beck, Robert Plant, Nazareth, Devo and countless others—but along the way, singer Tim Rose claimed co-writing credit, beginning a decades-long struggle for Dobson to reclaim recognition for the song she wrote.Author John Einarson joins Booked On Rock to discuss his new biography, Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew: The Life and Times of Bonnie Dobson and the Story of Her Iconic Song. We explore the remarkable origins of “Morning Dew,” Bonnie's experiences in the 1960s folk scene and with a young Bob Dylan, how the Grateful Dead helped immortalize the song, the controversy surrounding Tim Rose, and the battle to restore Bonnie's rightful credit. John also shares the wonderful story of Bonnie knocking on Robert Plant's door and how Plant ultimately helped her get her song back.Pre-order a copy of Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew: The Life And Times Of Bonnie Dobson And The Story Of Her Iconic SongOrder a signed copy of Take Me For A Walk In The Morning Dew from Rough TradeFind more books by John Einarson----------

What in life do you truly love? Perez Hilton's TikTok & Bibles. Spokane fire. "Behind Blue Eyes." Jeff Younger's son, transitioned by mother? Jesus & knowledge of the Bible.

If the Book of Chronicles ends with the decree of Cyrus, the Book of Ezra records what happens when the remnant steps onto the road home. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Ezra and Nehemiah form a single, continuous work, recording a second Exodus. Where the first Exodus delivered Israel from pagan bondage into a wilderness of promise, Ezra-Nehemiah records a deliverance out of pagan exile back into a ruined land, where the promise must be rebuilt stone by stone, altar by altar, and wall by wall. Covering the initial returns from Babylon under Persian decree, the narrative moves in two distinct restored foundations. First, under Zerubbabel, the exiles return to erect the altar and rebuild the Temple amidst fierce local opposition. Decades later, Ezra, a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, arrives not with masonry tools, but with Holy Scripture, tasked with the spiritual restoration of a prone-to-wander remnant. The northern kingdom is gone, and Judah is now a fragile province, yet the decisive reality is once again theological. The imperial throne of Persia is the instrument with which YHWH fulfills His sovereign word, proclaimed by the prophets. This small, vulnerable remnant is a matter of Gospel necessity. The survival of Judah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the preservation of the Davidic line in Zerubbabel ensure the stage is set for the Anointed One, Jesus of Nazareth to enter human history. Ezra sets the permanent pattern for spiritual renewal: to study the Law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it. His measure is whether a restored people will guard their hearts against compromise and order their lives around God's presence. The final word of Chronicles was an invitation to go up. Ezra proves that when God opens the way back, He provides the grace, the Word, and the shepherd needed to sustain the journey home.

Mark 6:1-6 Jesus goes home to Nazareth — and sees the people who watched Him grow up. They know His mother, His brothers, His sisters. Isn't that just the carpenter? They think and when He stands up in the synagogue and teaches with astonishing wisdom, they don't fall to their knees. They fold their arms. In this episode we walk through the verse that says "And he could do no mighty work there." Was Jesus not strong enough? Not for one second. Kids will learn why the King held back the joy of His kingdom from a town that had shut the door on Him — and why sometimes a big danger isn't doubting Jesus, but getting used to Him. WHAT KIDS WILL LEARN "His own country" / "hometown" means Nazareth — the village where Jesus grew up (He was born in Bethlehem, raised in Nazareth) Being astonished by Jesus is not the same as believing in Jesus Calling Him "the son of Mary" instead of "the son of Joseph" was a quiet insult "Could do no mighty work" does not mean Jesus lacked power — it means it would have been wrong for the King to pour out His kingdom's joy on people who had rejected Him Jesus' miracles are signs, not tricks — windows showing the King has arrived Faith is a gift from God, not something we work up on our own -------- Thanks to today's sponsor, GoMinno!! You'll want to check out this great resource for your family. --------- Support either way = Shout outs 1. ⁠ ad-free episodes +

Welcome to the Christmas series! In this episode, we meet Joseph, the strong, silently noble, carpenter from Nazareth. His character is put to the test, when his betrothed has some unexpected news to share. Sign up for special devotionals at StoriesoftheMessiah.com. As we dive deeply into iconic Bible heroes' enthralling narratives, we find more than just stories of faith and miracles. We discover a recurrent theme, a spiritual undertone that connects each tale to the grandeur of the Gospel. They're not just standalone legends; they're threads in a divine tapestry, weaving a story that foreshadows Jesus Christ, the ultimate hero, the promised Messiah who brings light to the darkest corners of history. For more Bible stories download the Pray.com app.  To learn more about Rabbi Schneider visit https://discoveringthejewishjesus.com/  Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

If the Book of Chronicles ends with the decree of Cyrus, the Book of Ezra records what happens when the remnant steps onto the road home. In the Hebrew Scriptures, Ezra and Nehemiah form a single, continuous work, recording a second Exodus. Where the first Exodus delivered Israel from pagan bondage into a wilderness of promise, Ezra-Nehemiah records a deliverance out of pagan exile back into a ruined land, where the promise must be rebuilt stone by stone, altar by altar, and wall by wall. Covering the initial returns from Babylon under Persian decree, the narrative moves in two distinct restored foundations. First, under Zerubbabel, the exiles return to erect the altar and rebuild the Temple amidst fierce local opposition. Decades later, Ezra, a scribe skilled in the Law of Moses, arrives not with masonry tools, but with Holy Scripture, tasked with the spiritual restoration of a prone-to-wander remnant. The northern kingdom is gone, and Judah is now a fragile province, yet the decisive reality is once again theological. The imperial throne of Persia is the instrument with which YHWH fulfills His sovereign word, proclaimed by the prophets. This small, vulnerable remnant is a matter of Gospel necessity. The survival of Judah, the rebuilding of Jerusalem, and the preservation of the Davidic line in Zerubbabel ensure the stage is set for the Anointed One, Jesus of Nazareth to enter human history. Ezra sets the permanent pattern for spiritual renewal: to study the Law of the LORD, to do it, and to teach it. His measure is whether a restored people will guard their hearts against compromise and order their lives around God's presence. The final word of Chronicles was an invitation to go up. Ezra proves that when God opens the way back, He provides the grace, the Word, and the shepherd needed to sustain the journey home.

David Daoud: A recent drone attack on an IDF vehicle near the Ali Taher Ridge highlights the fragility of the current ceasefire in Lebanon. The IDF maintains control over the ridge's surface, yet Hezbollah continues to operate within a vast underground tunnel network. Despite diplomatic efforts, Iran has boasted that ceasefires are used primarily to rearm and redeploy its proxies. Hezbollah's regeneration efforts, including weapons shipments through Syria and recruitment via the IRGC's Imam Hussein division, reportedly outpace Israeli interdiction. While the Lebanese government denies these activities, evidence suggests Hezbollah remains a significant fighting force south of the Litani River. (6)1868 NAZARETH

To the Manger and Beyond: A Devotional for Advent and Epiphany by Terry W. Eddinger Terryweddinger.com https://www.amazon.com/Manger-Beyond-Devotional-Advent-Epiphany/dp/B0H3L58QJT/ To the Manger and Beyond: A Devotional for Advent and Epiphany is a Scripture-centered devotional that guides readers through the biblical story of Jesus' birth, from Old Testament prophecy to the return of the holy family to Nazareth. Organized as a chronological journey, the book traces God's redemptive plan across nearly 1,800 years, beginning with messianic promises in the Hebrew Scriptures and culminating in the incarnation of Christ. The devotional is divided into five major sections: prophetic foundations for the Messiah, the birth of John the Baptist as forerunner, the annunciation to Mary and Joseph, the birth and early presentation of Jesus, and the visit of the Magi. Each devotion focuses on a specific biblical passage, offering historical, cultural, and theological insight to deepen understanding of the text. Rather than following traditional Advent themes, the book emphasizes close reading of Scripture and situates each event within its broader biblical and historical context.

The Name Above Every Name Conference Four Becoming Prayer When the Name Becomes Our Life “It is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me.” — Galatians 2:20 Over these past conferences we have spoken of receiving the holy Name, guarding the heart, and learning to stand before God with a broken spirit. All of these are necessary. Yet none of them is the destination. The Jesus Prayer is not an achievement. It is not even the highest form of prayer. It is a road. It leads somewhere. Or rather, it leads to Someone. Its purpose is not that we should become occupied with prayer. Its purpose is that we should become occupied with Christ. Everything else is secondary. ⸻⸻⸻ When the Fathers speak of unceasing prayer, they do not imagine a person anxiously repeating words every moment of the day. Such an understanding would quickly become exhausting. Rather, they speak of a heart that has learned never to depart from Christ. The words remain precious. They accompany us throughout our life. Yet gradually the relationship they express becomes more important than the words themselves. The prayer begins on our lips. It descends into the mind. It finds rest in the heart. Finally, it becomes the atmosphere in which we live. Not because we are continually conscious of it. But because Christ has quietly become the center of everything. ⸻⸻⸻ This is why Archimandrite Zacharias insists that the measure of prayer is not extraordinary experiences. The measure is love. Has the heart become more patient? More forgiving? More merciful? More truthful? More humble? If not, then no matter how many prayers have been recited, the purpose has been missed. The true miracle of the Jesus Prayer is not mystical phenomena. It is the slow transformation of a human being into the likeness of Christ. ⸻⸻⸻ 2 There is a temptation that comes even in the spiritual life. We begin to love prayer more than we love God. We become attached to certain feelings. Certain consolations. Certain moments of peace. When they disappear, we imagine we have lost everything. The Fathers quietly remind us that God sometimes removes sensible consolation so that we may seek Him alone. The Bride must learn to love the Bridegroom more than His gifts. Only then does love become pure. ⸻⸻⸻ One of the most beautiful teachings of St. Silouan, so often repeated by Elder Sophrony and Archimandrite Zacharias, is that the heart gradually becomes capable of embracing the whole Adam. At first we pray for ourselves. Then for those closest to us. Then for those we love. Eventually, grace begins to enlarge the heart. We discover ourselves praying for strangers. For enemies. For those who have forgotten God. For those who have wounded us. For those who have never known love. 3 The circle widens until there are no longer any outsiders. This is not something we accomplish. It is something Christ accomplishes within us. His own love begins to beat within the human heart. ⸻⸻⸻ The Jesus Prayer therefore has a profoundly priestly character. Every baptized Christian is called to stand before God on behalf of the world. We bring before Him those who cannot pray. Those who no longer believe. Those crushed by despair. Those trapped in addiction. Those overwhelmed by grief. Those who have forgotten even their own dignity. We carry them quietly within our hearts. Not because we are strong enough. But because Christ carries them within His. Prayer becomes participation in His own intercession before the Father. ⸻⸻⸻ There is another fruit that often goes unnoticed. The heart becomes grateful. Not merely thankful when life is pleasant. 4 Grateful always. The one who continually invokes the Name slowly discovers that every breath is gift. Every sunrise. Every meal. Every encounter. Every sorrow. Even suffering becomes a place where Christ may be found. Thanksgiving begins to permeate ordinary life. The Eucharist extends into every hour of the day. ⸻⸻⸻ The Fathers speak often of stillness. Many misunderstand this word. Stillness is not merely external silence. Nor is it freedom from activity. Stillness is the quiet confidence that Christ is present. A person may live in a monastery or in a crowded city. He may spend his days alone or surrounded by people. Stillness is possible wherever the heart has learned to remain with Christ. The Jesus Prayer becomes the guardian of this hidden peace. ⸻⸻⸻ As years pass, the prayer itself often becomes simpler. Sometimes the full prayer is spoken. 5 Sometimes only the holy Name. Sometimes no words at all. Only the silent awareness of His presence. The Fathers do not prescribe these movements. Grace teaches each soul according to its need. The important thing is never to abandon humility. The closer we draw to Christ, the more clearly we perceive that everything is gift. Nothing has been earned. Everything has been received. ⸻⸻⸻ Perhaps this explains why the greatest saints seem so ordinary. They do not appear remarkable. They seldom speak about themselves. They rarely attract attention. Having forgotten themselves, they have become transparent to Christ. People leave their presence remembering Him rather than them. This is the hidden victory of the Jesus Prayer. Not that we become known as holy. But that Christ alone becomes visible. ⸻⸻⸻ When we first began this retreat, we asked a simple question. 6 Why this Name? Now perhaps we may answer it. Because within this Name dwells the whole mystery of our salvation. The humility of Bethlehem. The obedience of Nazareth. The compassion shown to sinners. The tears shed over Jerusalem. The Cross. The silence of Holy Saturday. The glory of the Resurrection. The fire of Pentecost. Everything is contained within the Person whose Name we invoke. Each time we whisper, “Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me,” we stand before the whole mystery of the Gospel. Nothing essential is absent. ⸻⸻⸻ Soon this retreat will end. We shall return to our homes. To our families. To our work. To our responsibilities. 7 The hidden battle will continue. Distractions will return. Weakness will remain. But now the holy Name goes with us. It accompanies every step. It enters every conversation. It sanctifies every sorrow. It illumines every joy. Little by little, almost unnoticed, Christ Himself begins to gather the scattered fragments of our lives into a single offering to the Father. This is the true work of the Jesus Prayer. Not escape from the world. But the transfiguration of the heart within the world. ⸻⸻⸻ Let us therefore ask for no extraordinary gifts. Let us ask only for faithfulness. May the Name of Jesus remain upon our lips in times of joy and in times of grief. May it guard us in temptation. Strengthen us in weakness. Console us in loneliness. Humble us in success. Sustain us in suffering. 8 And at the hour of our death, when every earthly support has fallen away, may the holy Name still be found within our hearts—not as a formula we have mastered, but as the living presence of the Friend who has walked beside us all our lives. For in the end, the greatest fruit of the Jesus Prayer is not that we have learned to repeat the Name of Christ. It is that, through His infinite mercy, the Name of Christ has slowly written itself upon our hearts. And when that has happened, prayer has become life, and life itself has become an unending hymn of love to the Father, through the Son, in the Holy Spirit. Amen. 9

At the beginning of His public ministry, Jesus entered the synagogue in Nazareth and read from Isaiah's prophecy, declaring that He had come to proclaim good news, bind up the brokenhearted, set captives free, and announce the Lord's favor. In today's episode of the MY Devotional Podcast, Dr. Michael Youssef reflects on Isaiah's promise that the Messiah would give His people “a garment of praise instead of a spirit of despair.” This garment of praise is not something we are born wearing—it is a gift we must choose to put on. Praise does no good hanging in the closet of theory. It must be wrapped around the heart through gratitude, worship, and daily surrender to Christ. Dr. Youssef reminds us that true praise flows like a river from a heart that remembers God's goodness. Though God has given us countless reasons to praise Him, we must still participate. We must choose the praise-filled life, rejecting despair and fixing our eyes on Jesus. In Christ, sadness can be exchanged for gladness, despair for praise, sorrow for healing, and discouragement for hope. As we praise the name of Jesus, the cloud of discouragement begins to lift, and God supplies strength for the weary. Those who hope in Him will soar on wings like eagles, run and not grow weary, and walk and not faint. Prayer: Lord, thank You for providing me with the garment of praise through Christ Jesus. Help me to wear it daily. I pray in the name of Jesus. Amen. “The Spirit of the Sovereign Lord is on me, because the Lord has anointed me to proclaim good news to the poor” (Isaiah 61:1). Learn more in Dr. Michael A. Youssef's sermon Empowered by Praise, Aligning with Heaven: WATCH NOW | LISTEN NOW The voice you hear on the MY Devotional podcast is digitally generated with Dr. Youssef's permission. If today's devotional stirred a question, burden, or need for prayer, you don't have to walk through it alone.

We sit down Maureen Finney, the new president of Nazareth University. As reported by WXXI's Noelle Evans, Finney takes the helm of the institution at a time when federal rules are shifting for student loan borrowers. We sit down with Finney to discuss what those changes mean for Nazareth, her vision for the university, and the current state of higher education. In studio: Maureen Finney, Ed.D., president of Nazareth University

MOPs & MOEs is proudly sponsored by Teamworks — the performance operations platform trusted by elite military units and professional sports organizations worldwide. Teamworks brings your scheduling, communications, athlete monitoring, and readiness data into one unified system — so your leaders stay informed, your people stay connected, and your unit stays ready. No more scattered spreadsheets or missed messages. Just one platform built for organizations where performance is the mission. Learn more at teamworkstactical.comWe are also supported by TrainHeroic — the coaching and programming platform built for strength and conditioning coaches who train serious athletes. Whether you're programming for a military unit, a tactical team, or individual athletes, TrainHeroic gives you the tools to build and deliver professional training programs, track athlete progress, and communicate directly with your people — all through one app. Your athletes get world-class programming on their phone; you get the visibility to actually coach them. Start your free trial at trainheroic.comThe Core Four — Four Cognitive Traps Killing Military Human PerformanceDrew and Alex gave a standing-room-only breakout at the H2F Symposium on this. Now they have time to actually unpack it. Four heuristics that show up everywhere in military human performance — and in every human-run organization. You can't escape them, but you can at least recognize them. What we get into:Goodhart's Law — when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure. The AFT was designed to signal readiness. The moment it became an incentivized metric, people started optimizing the score instead of the fitness. Same thing happened in Vietnam with body counts. The cure: use multiple metrics, reward more than test scores, and acknowledge what the assessment was actually supposed to tell you.McNamara Fallacy — only what can be quantified matters. The first step is measuring what's easy. The second is disregarding what can't be measured. The third is assuming the unmeasurable isn't important. The fourth is deciding it doesn't exist. Sound familiar? Social cohesion, trust, culture, the music playing in the gym — none of these show up on a dashboard. All of them matter enormously. Every minute a coach spends measuring is a minute they spend not coaching.Hammond's Corollary — what gets measured gets managed, but what most needs managing isn't always measurable. The soldier with a perfect AFT score who can't pick up a ruck without throwing out his back. Fitness versus capability. Athleticism versus fitness. You know it when you see it — and just because you can't put it on a graph doesn't mean it doesn't exist.Nazareth syndrome — no man is a prophet in his own home. The one place Jesus got the most skepticism was Nazareth, because they knew him as the carpenter. The embedded human performance team dealing with real constraints gets ignored. The outside consultant with slick branding and a two-day seminar gets the senior leader's full attention. You can't eliminate this one — but you can use it to your advantage.Mentioned in this episode:Drew's article — The Death of Periodization at mopsandmoes.comChris Frankel — assessment framework: camera, map, crystal ball, engineVF Ridgway, 1956 — the actual origin of "what gets measured gets managed"Justice Potter Stewart, 1964 — the porn quote. You know it when you see it.The Tyranny of Metrics — Jerry MullerLong and Strong — the Mops and Moes training program on TrainHeroicViews expressed are those of the speakers and do not represent any official organization.

In this episode of The Reformed Brotherhood, Tony Arsenal delivers a rich expository sermon on James 5:1–6, one of the most striking prophetic passages in the New Testament epistles. Drawing on the Jewish literary and cultural context of James's original audience — Jewish Christians scattered from Jerusalem by persecution — Tony unpacks why this text is not a blanket condemnation of wealth, but a devastating judgment oracle against those who hoard riches and oppress the vulnerable. Along the way, he explores the eschatological weight of accumulated wealth, the theology of God's omniscient justice, and the stunning comfort available to the suffering believer. The episode closes by returning to James's thesis: that trials of every kind, including economic oppression, can be counted as joy because of who God is and what He has done in Christ. Key Takeaways James is a deeply Jewish book written to a specific audience — Jewish Christians dispersed from Jerusalem by Saul's persecution, not a general audience of wealthy or Gentile believers. The prophetic "Come now" signals a judgment oracle, not a direct address — James is not rebuking wealthy members of his congregation, but pronouncing eschatological judgment on oppressive landowners using a technique common in Amos, Malachi, and Micah. Hoarding wealth is not morally neutral — it is self-condemning — The corroded gold and moth-eaten garments are not just symbols of decay; they serve as legal evidence against those who refused to use their wealth for God's glory and the good of others. Withholding wages from laborers constitutes a form of murder — In the ancient world, depriving workers of their wages could literally cost them their lives. James draws on Old Testament law to frame predatory economic exploitation as a capital sin. God sees and hears the cries of the oppressed — The wages of defrauded workers "cry out" to the Lord of Hosts, echoing the blood of Abel in Genesis 4. God's justice is not passive or delayed out of ignorance — it is certain and coming. Matthew 25 reframes Christian mercy as care for the body of Christ — The sheep-and-goats judgment is not a general humanitarian mandate, but a specific call to care for persecuted brothers and sisters — and to recognize that mistreating them is mistreating Christ Himself. Trials are counted as joy through the doctrine of imputation — Suffering is not stripped of its pain, but it can be moved from the loss ledger to the profit column because God uses adversity as the instrument of sanctification and glorification. Key Concepts The Prophetic Address: Who Is James Actually Talking To? One of the most common misreadings of James 5:1–6 is assuming James is directly rebuking wealthy Christians in his own congregation. Tony Arsenal corrects this by grounding the passage in its literary and historical context. James employs a well-established prophetic technique — seen in Amos, Malachi, and Micah — of addressing an absent party in order to pronounce judgment on them, while simultaneously comforting those who overhear the oracle. His audience is the dispersed, impoverished Jewish Christians who fled Jerusalem under Saul's persecution. There were almost certainly no wealthy landowners in the room. The "Come now, you rich" is a judgment declaration directed outward, designed to assure the suffering poor that God has seen their oppressor and will act. Far from being a proof-text for radical poverty, the passage is a pastoral comfort wrapped in prophetic fire. Corroded Gold as Legal Evidence Against the Soul James's claim that gold and silver have "corroded" is deliberately shocking — and theologically precise. Gold, uniquely among metals in the ancient world, does not corrode. By saying it has already corroded, James is not making a metallurgical claim but a moral and eschatological one. The accumulated, hoarded wealth of the oppressor has lost its purpose. It sits idle while workers starve, and in doing so it becomes evidence — a legal witness — against its owner in the court of divine justice. Tony draws a direct line between this image and Jesus's teaching in the Sermon on the Mount about treasures stored on earth being subject to moth and rust. Both brothers — Jesus and James — appear to be drawing on the same shared wisdom, likely rooted in the same household and the same mother's instruction. Unused wealth does not just fail to help others; it actively indicts its holder. Counting It All Joy: The Accounting Logic of Sanctification Tony closes the sermon by returning to James 1:2 — the thesis statement of the entire letter — and unpacking the word "count" as an accounting term, directly related to the doctrine of imputation. Just as righteousness is reckoned to the believer in justification, so suffering can be reckoned as joy in sanctification. This is not a call to pretend pain isn't real, or to perform contentment. It is a theological reframing: what belongs in the loss column of the ledger can, by faith, be moved to the profit side — not because the trial was pleasant, but because God is sovereign, good, and working all things toward the believer's conformity to the image of Christ. The oppressor means their wickedness for evil. God means it for glory. The supreme example is the cross itself — the only truly innocent man, suffering the worst evil ever committed, for the redemption of His people. Memorable Quotes The corrosion of that gold serves as evidence for the condemnation of those who are harming you — and the corrosion of this wealth is an indication of the corrosion of their very souls. He sees your pain. He sees your suffering. He sees your victories even when no one else is celebrating them. He sees you — and that should be a great source of comfort. Imputation is an accounting term. And when we count it all joy, we're taking what should be a red line in the loss ledger — what should be an expense — and we're able to move it to the profit. Not because it didn't hurt, and not because we wanted it to happen, but because our God is good enough to not rob us of the chance to be sanctified. Full Transcript Tony Arsenal: Come now, you rich, weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you. Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasure in the last days. Behold, the wages of the laborers who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter. You have condemned and murdered the righteous person. He does not resist you." It's always a little, uh, strange to sort of jump into the middle of a series, and, um, you know, Wes is one of the most competent preachers that I know personally, so I trust that he has given you a good and satisfying overview. Uh, but I don't feel like I would be doing my responsibility if I didn't at least touch on a few things, uh, related to the, the intro to James that I think is relevant for this particular passage in a way that maybe is not relevant for the rest of the book. So some of this I hope is review, I, I anticipate is review, but I think it's worth, uh, touching on. James, as you know, is the, the half brother of Jesus. He was the leader of the Jerusalem church, and specifically he was sort of the figurehead of the Jewish church as a whole. Um, the Jewish church was the only church for the very early part of the church's growth. There were always, uh, Gentile believers. Even in the Old Testament, there were Gentiles who trusted in the Lord of Israel and the God of Israel. They were often called God-fearers. They rarely converted all the way to Judaism, but they were sort of seen as an attachment to the Jewish people. They didn't participate in all of the blessings of the Jewish people, but they did participate in most. They often had the same kind of protection. They were in a form of covenant with God. Um, they were able to worship and offer sacrifices. The temple itself had a whole portion of the temple dedicated called the Court of Gentiles, specifically for these Jewish worshipers. And as the church spread, primarily through persecution, which we'll touch base on here in a minute, as the church spread out from Jerusalem into Judea and Samaria, and ultimately to the ends of the earth, it took on a, an increasingly Gentile Greek flavor. As more and more primarily initially Greek converts came into the church, and then of course, as it spread to other sort of non-Hellenistic lands, other, other types of people, other nations, other people groups joined the church, the scriptures which-- the New Testament we receive primarily from Paul, at least in terms of the epistles, um, also began to take on a more Gentile flavor. Not because Paul was a Gentile, but because Paul was ministering primarily to Gentiles What we'll see here is that James is a very Jewish book. I'm sure that along the way there's been several kinds of things pointed out to you to show that, but I wanna show a couple things that not only establish James as the author, James the brother of, of Jesus, but also root the, not only the author, but the audience in a distinctly Jewish Christian, uh, context. So you don't have to turn there, I'll read this, but in Acts, uh, 15, which is the, the great Jerusalem Council, uh, we read this. It says, "With the following letter..." So the, the council meets, they make a decision about what k- what parts of the Jewish law were going to be commended to and recommended, uh, and required for the Christian believers, the Gentile Christian believers, and when they're done, they send this letter to all of, all of the churches. And it says, "With the following letter, the brothers, both apostles and the elders, to the brothers who are at, of the Gentiles in Antioch and Syria and Cilicia, greetings." Now, I don't know about you, but I always sign my emails the same way, right? I've got, like, my work signature that I have to use, that the, the hospital makes me use with all the proper formatting and colors and fonts, but I always have the same signature. Mine is very simple. I just say, "Thanks," right? I just sign it as, "Thanks," above my signature, and I'm sure you all have that sort of characteristic way you sign a s- sign an email, or maybe it's the way you say goodbye at the end of a phone call. My father-in-law always says, "So long," which is a phrase you don't hear very often, so it's very distinct to him. We all have these little tells in our communication that sort of tip off who they're from. If you turn quickly back over to James 1, so just flip the page, uh, to the left here, he starts his letter by saying, "James, a servant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ, to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, greetings." It's the only two letters in the New Testament that we have where the author identifies himself, sends to a sort of generalized audience, and then signs it, "Greetings." Now, James, the brother of Jesus, was the leader of the Jerusalem Church. He was the leader of the Jewish ch- the Jewish Church in general, and he signed the letter coming from the Acts Council as sort of the presiding minister. If, if we were, y- you might call them, like, the moderator of your business meeting, or we would call them the moderator of our presbytery or our session in the Presbyterian context I come from. He was the one who sort of, like, presided over there, and so the letter that went out to the churches was signed in his name and written, drafted by him. So we see this characteristic way that the letter is addressed with this final word, "Greetings," which is not used frequently in the New Testament We also see when we look at the language carefully that the audience of this, uh, of this letter, it's debated and there are good arguments, but i- in my opinion, it's very clear that the audience of this letter is not Jewish Christians in general or, uh, Jews who have not yet converted. There are some people who would say that 'cause they're called the 12 tribes. But instead it is the Jewish Christians who originally dwelled in Jerusalem and were sent out into the countryside after the persecution that was started primarily by Saul. If you look at Acts, Acts 1 which is, uh, the passage where Saul begins to persecute the church or where Saul kinda comes on the scene as the persecutor of the church, there's a couple distinct, um, distinct linguistic markers we should touch base on. Starting in verse one it says, "And p- Saul approved of his execution. And there arose a day-- that day a great persecution against the church in Jerusalem. They were all scattered throughout the region of Judea and Samaria, except the apostles. Devout men buried Stephen and made a great lamentation over him. But Saul was ravaging the church and entered the house after house. He dragged off men and women and committed them to prison." When we look at this and we compare it to that, uh, again, that first verse of James where he says to the ones who are scattered, we see that there's a pretty strong linguistic parallel that tells us that the people he has in mind for this letter, the people he's addressing, are the same people who were dispersed or scattered out of Jerusalem in the persecution. When he says to the 12 tribes in the dispersion, that word dispersion is not really a translation. It's what we call a transliteration. So it's not like we've taken a word and sort of given it an English word. We've just changed the word, the letters over to English letters. In Greek, the word is diaspora, dispersion, and in, uh, Acts 1, the verb used to, to sort of describe this scattering of them is diaspero. And it is a picture of scattering seed. This is what a farmer would do. So it's not even the normal word we would use when someone is fleeing persecution. It's this idea that God has scattered Christians out into the world, in this case by persecution. He scattered them out into the world to be planted. A lot of this is where we get phrases from Tertullian about the blood of the martyrs is the seed of the church. Now, why does this matter? As I mentioned, we often think in Gentile categories when we're reading the New Testament, and for good reason. One, we're all, all Gentiles, I'm presuming. I, I don't, I don't think-- I think I mentioned this last time, and no one came up and corrected me. I don't think anyone here is ethnically Jewish with ancestry that they're directly aware of, you know, where they trace their lineage directly back. Europe is a, a big amalgamation of just about everything, so most of us probably have a smattering of different ethnicities. But none of us are ethnically Jewish to the idea that we would, uh, identify as such in the same way. And even if we were, we've been raised and grown up in a Gentile context. We live in the West. We have-- We think in different categories. And what's more is most of the New Testament is written primarily to Gentiles by someone who is ministering to Gentiles. So Paul uses a fair amount of, of Hebraisms or things that are related to the Old Testament. Of course, he's explaining the Old Testament, and he makes ample reference to the Old Testament because that is the word of God, and it is profitable for our teaching, our correction, our reproof, and ultimately for our, our sanctification. But he uses metaphors and language in a way that is not common to the Israel context that Jesus and James and Peter and the other apostles were raised in. We don't have time to go there, but there's even some metaphors that Paul uses that are actually used the opposite way in, uh, in the more Hebraic Jewish, uh, epistles we have. One example that comes to mind is, um, Paul looks at the concept of milk, and that's not necessarily a good thing, right? It's not a bad thing, but it's what immature believers use, right? They can't handle the meat of the Bible. They have to be given the milk of the gospel before they can progress to the meat. In the Book of Hebrews, which I don't think was written by Paul, and in other places, Peter uses milk as a way to talk about nourishment, right? We think of the land flowing with milk and honey. Milk was not seen as some sort of substandard food that was only for babies. It was seen as, like, the richest, best thing that you could eat. We all have a linguistic environment that we grow up in. We all have a shared vernacular. You know, if I say something like, "You can't get there from here," everyone knows what that means. Obviously, you can get there from here, but you have to take this circuitous route. We know what that means. I think if we went around the room, we probably would find that there is this shared language. And then if we took individual families, we'd find that even within those families, there's further narrowing down of sort of like inside jokes and words that are used in ways that are not necessarily the same as others So when we read James, or when we read the letters of Peter or the letters of John, we should default to thinking more along the lines of comparing them to the words of Christ in the Gospel, first and foremost, and then to the Old Testament before we start to think about them necessarily comparing them to Ja-- or to Paul or to other kind of first century Hellenistic literature. That's not, of course, to say that Paul and James contradict. I'm sure that we went through a long explanation with much detail when you got to James chapter two, which is, of course, the most famous example. Paul uses the word justification or justify in a legal sense to make or to declare someone to be righteous. It's the verdict that the judge delivers, and it communicates the status. It actually performs what it says. When the judge says, "I find you not guilty," it changes your status from being potentially guilty to being cleared of all charges. Paul uses it slightly differently. He's not using it in the sense of to make someone righteous or to declare them righteous. He's using it to say they've been shown to be righteous. They've been validated. They've been vindicated. And if we get that mixed up, that's the source of all sorts of confusion. So when we come to this passage, and we'll get there, I promise, when we come to this passage, we have to understand some of the metaphors and the language that's being used draws from an existing body of shared cultural language that is foreign to us and is in some ways foreign to the rest of the New Testament, apart from what we see in the Gospels And it's important to remember, and this is why it's so key to land, that the audience of this letter is the persecuted, poor Jewish Christians who probably had a fairly comfortable life, relatively speaking, living in Jerusalem. These are city folks. These are people that live in Jerusalem or farm into the fields immediately around Jerusalem. They were established. They owned land. They probably had family that they had to leave, and now they're scattered out into the country with nothing. They're sent out into the world with no jobs, no family connections, no social welfare. Because they've left the Jewish faith, at least from the perspective of the Jews, they can't even go to their Jewish brothers and sisters and rely on the hospitality that's required in the law of Moses This is so important when we think about how James opens the letter and delivers what I think is his thesis statement. "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you face trials of every kind." Trials like not knowing where the next meal is gonna come from, not knowing where the next roof over your head is, not being sure you can feed your children. We all face real trials and tribulations in our life. Some of them are related to our faith, and some is just the fallen human condition in the fallen world we live in. But we're talking here about a totally different category of, uh, trial and persecution than most of us hopefully will ever experience That brings us to our actual passage now. James opens up this section with a linguistic marker that signifies this is a change in topic. He says, "Come now," or another way to translate it might be, "Now listen. Listen up." When my son is doing something that, uh, I need him to stop or I need to give him instructions, I hold him by his shoulders and I say, "Look at my eyes. I want your eyes right here. Look at my eyes." That's what Paul is doing. He's stopping and he's interrupting the flow of language. This shows us this is a new topic and a new audience. James is not speaking to rich Christians in his audience. First, 'cause there likely weren't any rich Christians directly in his audience. Remember, these are the, the poor Christians scattered out into the Judean countryside, into Samaria He's using a technique that's really common in the prophets. It's common in Jesus, where he's addressing the people who are not really listening as a way to establish that they will be judged, to hold them accountable, but also to comfort those who are hearing the message. This is a form of prophetic address. We see this in Amos, where he's chastising the Jewish leaders. Uh, in Malachi and Micah, this happens. Malachi is primarily, at least initially, is primarily, uh, a book that is railing against the rich leaders in Jerusalem who had oppressed their own brothers and sisters. The chances that those Jewish cr- uh, Jewish leaders were reading his prophecy or hearing his prophecy is pretty slim. So he was addressing a different group to establish the judgment that he was proclaiming on another party. Jesus does this when he says like, "Woe to you, scribes and Pharisees." There were probably scribes and Pharisees in the audience there, but he wasn't just talking to the people in front of them. He was pronouncing a judgment oracle, a judgment prophecy on all people who fit that category, and James is doing the same thing here James is not opposing wealth generally. Sometimes James is used as kind of a New Testament example to justify the idea that we should all be poor and wear shabby clothing and walk around barefoot and dirty all the time. Right? This is a key passage that's used, uh, in parts of the church that really emphasize sort of a poverty-based lifestyle. Think of like the wandering monks of the Middle Ages or the, the, um, sort of more radical exclusionists that exist even in our day. I remember when I was in college, I was really enamored with this figure named Shane Claiborne. Some of you have probably heard of him, and I remember I was so impressed because he, he didn't buy new shoes. He just cut new shoes out of duct tape and put them back together. Now, there's some, you know, there's some rugged, uh, rugged get-it-done-ness that, uh, I think us, uh, New Englanders can appreciate, but God does not call us to wear duct tape shoes, at least not universally. I'm not gonna comment on whether he calls Shane Claiborne to do that. I also don't think Shane Claiborne does that anymore. Um, some of us he may call to a lifestyle of poverty in association with a mission field or in association with a specific calling. He does not call us generally to be poor or to not gain wealth What he is opposing here is the refusal to use wealth appropriately for God's glory and the accumulation of wealth just for wealth's sake We'll see that as we unpack the language here a little bit. He establishes that he's not just talking about the earthly hoarding of wealth, as though somehow the very act of accumulating wealth was itself the problem. What he's doing is he's pronouncing an eschatological judgment on those who hoard wealth and use it to oppress others. We see here he says, "Come now, you rich, and weep and howl for the miseries that are coming upon you." Th- that word weep and howl, those are li-- those are words that are most commonly used in prophetic literature to describe the final cry of anguish. Think about the weeping and gnashing of teeth that Jesus talks about. This is the language he's using. He's talking about the final estate of those who refuse to submit their wealth to God He says, "Your riches have rotted and your garments are moth-eaten. Your gold and silver have corroded, and their corrosion will be the evidence against you and will eat your flesh like fire. You have laid up treasures in the last days." Now, remember what we said. We, we should read this not in light of some general wisdom, although it is general wisdom that if we accumulate wealth, it tends to not actually go well for us if we're not utilizing it in God-honoring ways. But we should read this in light of the most obvious connection, his big brother, Jesus, who taught his people, "Do not lay up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moth and rust destroy, where thieves break in and steal, but lay up for yourselves treasure in heaven, where neither moth nor rust destroys, where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will also be." To maybe land this linguistic, uh, this linguistic connection a little more, I don't know, vibrantly, I'm gonna speculate a little bit. So if you don't like it, then you can disregard it. This is not God's Word. This is a speculation. I can just imagine little Jesus, little nine-year-old Jesus, and probably little six or seven-year-old James and the rest of their siblings, and there's quite a few of them. And we have Joseph, uh, who maybe at this time was still living, although probably not. We know he was living until Jesus was later, you know, 12, he was still around, but we don't know exactly when he left the picture. But he was a carpenter, and he was not, probably not overly wealthy. Uh, they had had to pick up and move, you know, cross-country anyways. They-- We don't know exactly where they were from initially, but they went to Bethlehem, and then they returned to Nazareth. They probably didn't have a lot. There were a lot of mouths to feed and only one business. They didn't have a farm. They didn't own livestock that we know of. I can just imagine a time when little J- little James or one of his sisters was frustrated about the fact that they didn't have anything. And I could picture Mary getting down and going, "Do not store up treasures in, in, uh, in heaven or on Earth. It's all gonna waste away." The same way we might tell our children kind of a, a moral kind of story. Sometimes we have this picture, last time I was here I, I spoke on Philippians 2, we have this idea that Jesus was somehow like Superman, that he, he was just pretending to be a normal human most of the time. As it touches his humanity, as, as we think about Jesus as a human, he had a, his own human set of thinking faculties, his own human knowledge. He grew in wisdom and stature is what Luke teaches us. Well, where did he get some of this wisdom? There's a good reasonable argument to be made that some of the pr- more proverbial type sayings that we see in Christ, that they actually come from the wisdom of his mother and father. And a really good reason to believe that is James relies on the same exact, uh, sort of proverbial wisdom to l- land his point. He doesn't create his own metaphor, he goes back to, at the very least we can say he goes back to the words of Christ. That's a very safe position to take. But this is the shared linguistic context that they both grew up in And he says, "You've done this in the last days." Now, the, the phrase last days in the Bible, uh, in the New Testament generally refers to the time period from Christ's resurrection to his return. We, for a lot of reasons, think about it as kind of like that climactic end period in time. Depending on your, your persuasion, maybe this is when the Antichrist comes, or maybe this is before or after, or maybe during the time when the church is raptured. But in either case, we think of that sort of last period in time before Christ finally comes back. But the New Testament writers are really talking about the entire duration, from Christ's resurrection to his return is what they're referring to. But it does have in view this idea that we are in the last times. The, the final judgment is not necessarily strictly something that's out there in the future. We are living in the last days now, and so what we do and what we say and, and how we worship and if we worship is eschatology. It is the theology of the last times He also positions this as though this is a universal thing going on with those who hoard wealth. This is a very shocking image. Um, we have very good ways to preserve things in our modern world, right? We have ways to m- to make, uh, stainless steel that won't rust, or at least won't rust quickly. But most things in the ancient world, even most precious metals, corroded. Um, I remember when I was growing up, there was this project in my hometown. I lived in a, a little town called White Bear Lake in, in, um, Minnesota, although little is relative. It's pretty big compared to most of what we have out here. And I remember when I was maybe 12 or 13 years old, they had this big building project to build this brand-new, beautiful lakeside pavilion in the center of town, and it w- just gleamed in the sun. It was so gorgeous, and it was made of copper, and everybody loved it, and two years later, it was bright green. I think it's still bright green. I think they figured out it wasn't worth repairing, so they, they just, they just make sure it doesn't keep getting worse, and at some point, I'm sure they either have or will tear it down. But the one metal in the ancient world that didn't do this was gold. It's part of why gold is such a durable measurement of wealth is because it doesn't wear out. It doesn't corrode. It's very soft. It's very easy to damage it, which is why we don't build statues out of it, or we don't build, uh, buildings out of it usually, but it didn't corrode. So when James says here, "Not only your silver, which tarnishes and corrodes, but your silver and gold have corroded." Not are corroding, but have corroded. The rich hearer of this is probably, you know, sitting around like Scrooge McDuck with a pile of gold coins thinking, "Ah, it looks pretty good to me." And what James is saying is, "No, no, no. No, it's corroded. It's eating away at your heart. It's lost its value because you refuse to use it, and so it sits in a pile doing nothing for no one, except serving to further your own condemnation." This is such a crazy, shocking situation that the insanity of not using your wealth, period, the insanity of sitting on your wealth in the ancient world is going to serve as a form of evidence justifying the condemnation of these wicked fools And further, the corrosion of this wealth is an indication of the corrosion of their very souls. There's something about money. I was-- When I was here a couple times before, I preached one of the wealth passages out of Ecclesiastes, and there's something about money that has a unique way of really, really wrecking us. Either we don't have it and we want it, or we have it and we don't wanna lose it, or we have it and we don't spend it wisely. It seems like there's an infinite number of ways to screw it up. And we landed last time that the gospel is good news because with the nearly infinite ways of screwing it up, we're going to screw it up. But the one way that he talks about screwing it up here is hoarding it and sitting on it and not using it Moving on into verses four and five, James moves us now to a more sort of temporal register. He starts out by talking about what wealth is and what it's doing and how it will ultimately affect the entire life and eternity of those in his targeted audience, those he's proclaiming this prophetic, uh, judgment against. But in verse four, he moves back to the behaviors that are being, uh, being engaged in to show the state of these people's souls. He says, "Behold, the wages of the laborers you, who mowed your fields, which you kept back by fraud, are crying out against you, and the cries of the harvesters have reached the ears of the Lord of Hosts. You have lived on the earth in luxury and in self-indulgence. You have fattened your hearts in a day of slaughter." James here points at the, at the behaviors that show this hoarding behavior, and he does it for a number of reasons. One, he needs to call out sin. That's part of the role of a Christian, and especially a leader or a minister in the church, is, um, to not only call out sin in the body of, of Christ, but in a, I think a very particular way, and there's all sorts of, uh, all sorts of theological controversies flying on around about Christian nationalism and other associated things. Some of it is just the spirit of the age. Um, post-COVID, there's a, a real strong sense that our government has failed us and we need to replace it with something else. But there is a, a true way, and I, I think some of those things are a little misguided, but there's a true way that the church, particularly her leaders, should be speaking to the culture around us, and yes, even to the government, to proclaim the truth of God into a wicked and godless culture. This might take the form o- of a m- minister who goes to a town hall meeting to speak out against a gambling association that's going to be forming, or a, an elder in the church or a deacon in the church who goes to speak to, uh, to the city hall or to the state legislature about the wickedness of abortion and about what we see it does to women's lives when they are fooled into thinking that this is the right thing for them. Again, the church is not the state, and the state is not the church, and we should be very careful not to cross those lines for all sorts of reasons. But we as a culture, as a Christian culture, in the United States particularly, have lost sight of our responsibility to speak truth in all circumstances to those in power So James is doing that, of course. But even more so, this is a way that he establishes for his direct audience, for the Jewish poor Christians who have been scattered in this diaspora, in this dispersion. He looks at them in a sense and says, "I see you. I see what's happening to you." And as God's representative, as his chosen voice for this message, as his inspired author, God sees you too This goes back again, the first two chapters of James serve as kind of a thesis statement and table of contents for the whole book. We get an idea of what may have been happening, the actual, uh, acts that were being engaged in, in, in chapter two verse six, he says, "You have insulted the poor. Is it not the rich who are exploiting you? Are they not the ones who are dragging you into court? Are they not the ones who are slandering the noble name of him to whom you belong?" James has in mind here a form of predatory land purchasing, where the rich were sort of sweeping up property. They were sweeping it up, and then they were charging probably exorbitant prices to those who would lease the land to try to eke out a living. Does that sound at all like any of our current context, right? When's the last time any of us have tried to buy a house and found anything reasonable? Well, a large part of that is that there are big companies that are scooping up all the land and buying all the, the developments. Now, I'm not commenting on those particular situations. I don't know those people. I don't know their hearts, and some of those things actually are doing good things for the community. But we're familiar with this idea of someone who will purchase a resource, who will then jack the price up in order to turn a profit on it. I'm not opposed to turning a profit. Y- y- yeah, it takes money to run a business, and you have to, you have to recuperate those funds if your business is going to survive. But there's a, there's a way that that can be done that is a predatory act These rich landowners were getting fat on those that they were victimizing In our, in our modern world, we tend to think of someone who is overweight as unhealthy, for good reason, right? Too much weight, and I say that with someone with a little too much padding around the middle, so no, no judgment on this, but too much weight is not healthy, right? We hear that from our doctors, that there's a healthy weight range and there's an unhealthy weight range. In the ancient world, obesity was not the concern, right? Malnutrition was the concern. And so when you see, uh, a king in the Old Testament who's, who's noted to be fat, that's not always negative. Sometimes it is, but he's noted to be fat or he's noted to be large. Even the word for glory, I'm sure you've heard this before, the word for glory in the Old Testament has to do with being heavy. So this idea of weightiness or, um, being able to eat enough to actually gain weight instead of being thin was seen as a good thing, but not when you use it as a way to victimize other people. A person who gathers wealth honestly and enjoys it, that's, that's Proverbs right there. That's the Book of Ecclesiastes in its sort of positive sense, is that we, when we accumulate wealth and we use it for God's glory, it's perfectly okay for us to also use it for our enjoyment. God wants us to enjoy the fruit of our labor. But when we accumulate wealth and use it as a way to gain power over someone and to abuse them, that is what James is railing against here And ultimately, with the audience that James is writing to, this is a form of murder. This is why he says, "You have fattened your hearts in the day of slaughter." Because a person who can't feed their family in the Old Testament or in the New Testament era was likely to see them die. There are not a ton of people in modern America that are starving to death on the streets. It's not to say it doesn't happen. It's not to say that there's not things like food insecurity or malnutrition, but there are, there are plenty of places people can go to get their basic food needs met. It was not like that-- It's not like that in most of the world now, and it certainly was not like that in the ancient world. And so a, a landowner who again refuses, we're talking about the Jewish landowners, refuses to obey the Jewish law to leave some leftovers for the poor, and instead gleans all the way to the corner so that they can turn a little bit of extra pro-profit, is not only sinning against the Old Testament law, but is committing murder in the strictest sense by refusing to preserve the life of these poor, uh, Christians who are destitute And again, James is encouraging his readers here that the Lord has not ignored their plight. We can think back to the Book of Habakkuk, where Habakkuk basically lodges a lawsuit against God, saying, "You are not paying attention. You're not doing your thing. You're not being faithful to your covenant." And God says, "Let me show you how faithful to my covenant I am. The Chaldeans are on the way." And Habakkuk is like, "Whoa, wait a second here. That's not what I had in mind." God sees the oppression of the poor. He knows when His people are targeted. He knows when children are abused or when widows are ignored. He knows when the government does something to shut down a church, or when the medical institution refuses to acknowledge your personal rights. He sees those things, and He's not ignorant, and He's not static. He's not sleeping on those things. The purpose here is to comfort the oppressed by showing that God is not ignorant of what has happened to them. Just two quick Old Testament examples that use similar language. In Genesis 4, we read of Cain and his murder of Abel, and in verse eight it says, "Cain spoke to Abel his brother, and when they were in the field, Cain rose up against his brother Abel and killed him. Then the Lord said to Cain, 'Where is Abel your brother?' He said, 'I don't know. Am I my brother's keeper?' And the Lord said, 'What have you done? The voice of your brother's blood is crying out to me from the ground.'" Numbers, uh, 35 verses 30 says, "If anyone kills a person, the murderer shall be put to death on the evidence of witnesses, but no person shall be put to death on the testimony of one witness. Moreover, you shall accept no ransom for the life of a murderer who is guilty of death, but he shall be put to death. And you shall accept no ransom from him who has fled to the city of refuge, that he may return to dwell in the land before the death of the high priest. You shall not pollute the land in which you live, for blood pollutes the land, and no atonement can be made for the land except for the blood that is shed in it, except by the blood of the one who shed it." There's a rich history in the Old Testament of language of inanimate things, land, blood, wealth, other kinds of things that give testimony to God in some way, and specifically of these inanimate, uh, impersonal things testifying to the sin of the people that dwell around them. Even Christ says, "If these people do not worship me, the rocks will cry out." Now, the rocks are not literally crying out, although it certainly would be within God's power to make the rocks sing. But Christ is not saying in that passage that the rocks are going to form mouths and begin singing Hosanna or whatever song they might have been doing. What he's saying is that the very rocks themselves give testimony to the glory and goodness of God. So even if the people around here fail to do so, the entire rest of creation is doing so, and that is what James is saying here. My dear brothers and sisters scattered in the dispersion who have nothing, and in society's eyes are nothing, some of you are facing persecution. Some of you will be killed for your faith, but God sees because the wealth that is being accumulated on the breaking of your own backs is crying out. The corrosion of that gold serves as evidence for the condemnation of those who are harming you We often want justice in the moment. I think we always want justice in the moment, don't we? I think it's a really hard discipline to say, "That person wronged me, but I'm okay letting God sort it out." That is a hard pill to swallow, but it is often the pill that we have to take. It's the medicine that God uses to further our justification, our j- our, uh, excuse me, our sanctification Paul says, you know, "Do not take vengeance. Let the Lord do that." We can trust, and this is where the comfort of this passage comes for us, brothers and sisters, we can trust that when we are wronged, that when someone has done something to us that is a violation of God's law, that that sin will be punished. Now, when we're dealing with other Christians, that sin has already been punished, and so it is not, it is not appropriate for us to hold onto that and to take vengeance. That's what the parable of the unmerciful servant is all about If I as a Christian refuse to forgive my brother and sister when they've wronged me, it's me saying that I'm a better judge of their sin and I'm a better executioner than the Lord is when he punished that sin on the cross. But that sin was not atoned for when we're talking about unbelievers. When we're talking about those who will ultimately end their earthly life and find themselves waking up in flames, that sin has not been atoned for, and so God will have his justice, and we will have our justice. We won't turn there, but in Revelation, we're familiar with the passage, I think it's chapter six, where the martyred saints are under the throne and they say, "How long, O Lord?" Well, God doesn't answer their question, but he gives them new clothes. When Job cries out and he's, he's saying, "I don't understand why this is happening. Why are you targeting me, God? Why, why are you a hunter with your arrows in my liver?" God doesn't tell him why, but he says, essentially, "I'm God and you're just going to have to trust me that this is right." We see a very similar, uh, kind of situation here when we think about when, uh, when Abraham, uh, when God tells Abraham what he's about to do to Sodom and Gomorrah, and then Abraham negotiates, apparently negotiates with God, uh, trying to secure the salvation of the city for the sake of the righteous. And we read starting in verse 20 of chapter 18, he says, "The Lord said to, to Abraham," he says, " 'Because the outcry against Sodom and Gomorrah is great and their sin is very grave, I will go down to see whether they have done altogether according to the outcry that has come to me. If not, I will know.' " God is always seeing and investigating the sin of people We're, we're teaching my son, August, the children's catechism, which is a, a great resource. Um, and one of the questions is, "Can you see God?" And the answer is, "No, but he always sees me." Now that may feel at first to some people like a little bit of a heavy-handed answer, but knowing that God sees us is not just there to correct our sin. It should do that, right? Even the secret sins we commit in the dark when, when we're not being watched by anyone else, even, even those God sees. But do you know what else He sees? He sees your pain. He sees your suffering. He sees your victories even when no one else is celebrating them. He sees your progress. He sees you, and that should be a great source of comfort Now this passage, especially verse six, can be a little bit hard to apply because although we're the targeted audience, we're not the target of the judgment oracle. So I think what we have to do, we have to, we have to think about this in light of the way that God talks about the judgment of unbelievers in other places in the scripture, and how that helps us to understand kind of what our, what our status is. If you'll take your Bibles and open to Matthew chapter 25, I think the, um, the account here of the goat and sheep judgment, uh, is instructive for us Starting in verse 31, it says, "When the Son of Man comes in his glory and the angels with him, he will sit on his glorious throne. Before him will be gathered all nations, and he will separate people one from another as a shepherd separates the sheep from the goats. And he will place the sheep on his right, but the goats on the left. Then the King will say to those on his right, 'Come you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me food, I was thirsty and you gave me drink, I was a stranger and you welcomed me, I was naked and you clothed me, I was sick and you visited me, I was in prison and you came to me.' Then the righteous will answer him saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you or thirsty and give you a drink? When did we see you a stranger and welcome you, or naked and clothe you? And when did we see you sick or in prison and visit you?' And the King answered them, 'Truly I say to you, as you did it to one of the least of these my brothers, you did it to me.' Then he will say to those on the left, 'Depart from me for you for, uh, depart from me, you cursed, into the eternal fire prepared for the devil and his angels. For I was hungry and you gave me no food, I was thirsty and you gave me no drink, I was a stranger and you did not welcome me, I was naked and you did not clothe me, I was sick and in prison and you did not visit me.' Then they also, uh, they also will say, answer saying, 'Lord, when did we see you hungry or thirsty or a stranger or naked or sick or in prison, and not minister to you?' Then he will answer them saying, 'Truly I say to you, as you did not do it to one of the least of these, you did not do it to me.' And these will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life." Now, this passage is sometimes understood as a general command to feed the poor or the sick, or to visit those in prisons, or any of the f- the sort of mercy ministry things that, that, um, are mentioned here. And those are all things that Christians should do, right? We should be engaged in, um, in mercy ministry to the poor, to those who are destitute. We should be mindful and thoughtful of those who have needs around us. What this passage is teaching, though, is not a general command to feed all people, but a specific command to care for your brothers and sisters in Christ when they have a need He doesn't say to the righteous, "You did these to everyone." He says, "Whatever you did to the least of these, my brothers, you did it to me." All of the things that are listed here, the, the six mercy ministries that are listed by Christ here, are things that persecuted Christians were suffering at the time, persecuted Jew- Jewish Christians, and that would be common experiences for, for Jewish Christians and for all persecuted Christians. Right? They're hungry. They don't have food. Our diaspora Jewish Christians don't have land to farm, and even if they're able to scrape together enough funding to lease out a farm, they're being, uh, they're being totally overwhelmed by the cost of that. The sort of homeowners association dues of these pyramid schemes that were going on in the first century, they were so exorbitant that it wasn't even subs- subsistence farming. Christians were being thrown in, uh, in prison. They didn't have enough money to replace their clothes when it wore out. They couldn't have access to clean water. We take clean water as such a, such a basic thing, and it's so easy. You just turn on the tap, or you just go to the store and you buy a bottle of $7 water. It wasn't like this in the first century. If you didn't have a well, you didn't have water, unless you had someone who cared enough to share this precious resource with you. And so what Christ is saying to, to his people, both in the immediate audience on the Sermon on the Mount, uh, and in this, the Olivet Discourse here, what he's saying to his people is when someone in the body of Christ does not have what they need, the body of Christ should step up and make sure that that is the case, that they take care of that person. And likewise, he's saying to those who are not a part of the body of Christ, "Depart from me, I never knew you." Now, the intro to this, why it sometimes is called a parable, is the sheep and the goats. We sometimes go way too far into the arena of comparing the behavior of sheeps with the behavior of the people here, right? Sheep are nice, they're affable, they listen to you. In reality, from what I understand, sheep are pretty dumb and can be very stubborn, right? And then we, we read and we go, "Goats are stubborn, they're rebellious, they're not really good for anything." Well, there's a reason people have goats on farms. They, they can be stubborn, right? They can be destructive, but they also serve a purpose. So the point here is not that sheep are good and goats are bad. The point is that sheep are not goats and goats are not sheep. And, uh, another point that comes with this is sheep don't become goats by behaving like goats, and goats don't become sheep by acting like sheep. I have some friends that will tell you they have very affectionate, friendly, lovable goats, right? I'd, I would... If I could get my kids one of those little pygmy goats that everybody loves, I would do that, 'cause they can be very kind, very sweet, and they're very smart. But they're not sheep. And if you read this passage carefully, this fact that those who are taken to the right are, are in fact taken to the right is not because they fed the poor. It's not because they ministered to Christ by feeding the least of these. They did those things because they were part of the kingdom The King says to those on His right, "Come, you who are blessed by my Father, inherit the kingdom prepared for you from the foundation of the world." The sheep on the right were always going to be the sheep on the right. They were predestined according to the counsel of God's will before all time to live and walk in good works. That's just Ephesians 2 there. That's also just James 2 there. You have faith, I will show you my faith by my works. This is evidence language, loved ones Likewise, the ones who are told to depart into eternal darkness were also predestined not to inherit this kingdom. No kingdom was prepared for them before the foundation of the world. They have no inheritance. They have nothing. They will end up in the state that they are trying to impose on these poor Jewish Christians. They will end up in the state that they may be trying to impose on some of us in this room And for the final verse here in, in chapter five, in verse six here, there's a lot of discussion and debate in the commentaries about who the identity of this righteous one is. It says, "You've condemned and murdered the righteous person, he does not resist you." Now, some commentators will take the fact that this is the singular righteous person, that he has been murdered and h- was condemned, and will take this as a reference to Christ. And that would, would make good sense, right? The Jewish, the wealthy Jewish landowners, the wealthy Jews in Jerusalem who per- who persecuted and cast out, um, the Christians, they were in the same group of people who condemned and murdered Jesus And at least at the time of writing this, and in many ways in our own day, God is not necessarily resisting them. He's allowing them to store up judgment for the coming day of wrath There are others who will take this as sort of the hypothetical singular, right? The righteous one or the righteous person is this, uh, representative hypothetical person that represents all of the persecuted Christians. And so it's more like saying, um, to the, the wealthy landowners who are persecuting Christians, "You have condemned and murdered the Christians, the righteous people, and we do not resist you." Now, at the end of the day, it's, it's always good to have good, sober, well-intentioned, text-based debates about what the Bible means. We can and we should try to convince others, uh, when we think they're wrong about what the scripture means. So that's not what I'm saying here. But in many ways, which of those two perspectives it actually is doesn't change the interpretation of this passage. Like we read in Matthew 25, like we read in Acts 9 when Christ comes and confronts Saul, what you do to God's people, you are doing to Christ himself. What you do to the body, you have done to the head. It's a little bit weird to say that when I stub my toe, I injure my head, but that's true, right? I don't injure my toe as though it's some separate piece. It's not like I'm a Lego man where I can just swap out a hand that gets cracked and put it back on. When I injure my toe, I injure myself. My whole body is injured even though it's specific to a part of my body. When you-- when someone persecutes you, when they, uh, try to extort your wealth, your funds, when they try to harm your body, when they try to take away your children, all things that are happening not just out there in the world, but in our country, even in our own region. When they try to tell you that because you don't wanna play a basketball game, that you can't play sports at all. When a city taxes a portion of a church's property because they don't think it's being used for religious purposes, they are doing that to Jesus Christ himself, and God will not be mocked This should call us both to faithfulness and to encouragement How people treat Christ or how people treat Christ's people, including how we trust, tr- uh, treat Christ's people, shows us what we think about Christ. The people who take care of the church do so because they love God, and they do it out of a regenerated heart that already loves God. And the people who hate the church do it because they hate Christ, and they do it out of their wickedness and out of their wicked heart This brings us back again to the thesis statement of James. "Count it all joy, my brothers, when you meet trials of various kinds, for you know that the testing of your faith produces steadfastness. And let steadfastness have its full effect, that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing." And then he says later in that, uh, first chapter in verse nine, "Let the lowly brother boast in his exaltation, and the rich in his humiliation, because like the flower of the grass, he will pass away. For the sun rises with its scorching heat and withers the grass; its flower fails, and its beauty perishes. So also will the rich man fade away in the midst of his pursuits. Blessed is the man who remains steadfast under trial, for when he has stood the test he will receive the crown of life, which God has promised to those who love him." Now, you're all coming up to the end of James here. Um, we probably have two, two more sermons, I would guess, and the rest of this chapter is reinforcing this. It's unpacking for the immediate audience and therefore for us, it's unpacking that although the rich have their punishment coming to them, that likewise our consolation, our comfort from Christ is also coming to us. He closes the whole letter out, he returns to his thesis statement to say, "I'm not going to pretend that the trials you're going through are joyful, but you can count it all joy." You can reckon it, you can impute it as joy, my brothers and sisters. You can put it in the joy column instead of the t- the pain column, right? We had discussion about the beautiful word imputation in the announcements and scripture reading in the beginning here Imputation is a, is an accounting term. And when we count it all joy, we're taking what should be a red line in the, in the loss ledger, right? We're taking what should be an expense, and we're able to move it to the profit. We're able to move it to the positive side, not because it didn't hurt and not because we wanted it to happen, but because our God is good enough to not rob us of the chance to be sanctified When we are oppressed and opposed, those who are oppressing and oppose us mean it for evil, just like Joseph's brothers, uh, and Pharaoh, and all sorts of wicked men in, in the Old Testament and in our own world. Pilate, Herod, you mean, you name it in the Bible, this applies. They meant their wicked acts for wicked things, but God, rich in mercy, works all things for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purpose. And what is that purpose? That we might be transformed into the image of Christ so that Christ may be glorified and He may be the firstborn among many brothers. When we face trials and suffering of every kind, it leads us to our sanctification and to our ultimate glorification. We do not earn those things. We don't sanctify ourselves any more than we justify ourselves, or that any more than we will glorify ourselves or will raise ourselves from the dead. That is all God's work from start to finish. But God does use these things that He brings us through as a way to bring about that work It's like he bends us over the hammer, over the anvil of trials, and he hammers us until we become a sharp sword in the hand of, in his hand. Or he polishes us with a rough cloth until we become a smooth, beautiful gem, right? Think of any number of refining things that need to be done. It always involves, if the thing was, uh, was a person, it always involves something that would hurt a little bit. It always involves a little bit of damage to wear away the impurities. Our sanctification and our glorification is no different than that. He uses adversity. He uses the wicked actions and intentions of, of evil men and women. He uses those things to glorify us. So although we should never, uh, we should never seek those things, right? You don't have to go and make yourself the soft target to the wicked people. It's okay to keep your head down. There's nothing wrong with that. The Jewish Christians were probably doing their best to keep their heads down most of the time, and that's fine. There's not any words in scripture about being a coward if you don't, if you don't put a target on your back. But your target is gonna get there eventually, and that's not a bad thing. We can welcome that. We can count it as joy because of who God is and what he's done. The supreme act of suffering, the supreme act of, of evil happened to the only innocent person there ever was, and it happened to him for us.  this episode is available below.

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Read OnlineOur Native PlacesJesus came to his native place and taught the people in their synagogue. They were astonished and said, “Where did this man get such wisdom and mighty deeds? Is he not the carpenter's son? Is not his mother named Mary and his brothers James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas? Are not his sisters all with us? Where did this man get all this?” And they took offense at him. Matthew 13:54–57Though this passage recounts the sorrowful rejection Jesus experienced in His hometown, it also reveals something deeper: the mystery of the Incarnation and the subtle spiritual danger that can arise from overfamiliarity. It invites us to see ourselves in the people of Nazareth—in our own “native place.”The Greek word translated as “native place” (patris) signifies more than geography. It denotes one's homeland and the cultural identity that shapes a person. Both meanings are important. Geographically, Nazareth was where Jesus lived, worked, and was intimately known. The people recognized His mother, Mary, and His extended family—referred to here as His “brothers” and “sisters,” a term which refers to His cousins and relatives. They had watched Him labor as a carpenter, gather with family and friends, and attend synagogue with them.Just as important was their cultural closeness. In small towns like Nazareth, people shared customs, values, religious traditions, and family histories. They were molded by the same feasts, the same teachers, and the same unspoken rules. This collective memory formed a lens through which everything—and everyone—was interpreted.When Jesus returned after beginning His public ministry, He no longer appeared to them as the humble craftsman they had always known. He stood before them as a man of divine authority, a miracle worker, and the long-awaited Messiah. To many, this was not merely surprising—it was unsettling. His new identity seemed incompatible with their memories of the boy they had watched grow up. Their vision of Him was too small to contain the mystery He now revealed. Thus, what should have been a moment of grace became instead a moment of resistance.Spiritually, our “native place” can be understood as all that is familiar to us—our upbringing, relationships, habits, expectations, and experiences. While these can often be good and formative, they can also become obstacles when God calls us beyond them. Like the people of Nazareth, we may cling to the familiar and resist the radical transformation Christ desires to accomplish in us. When He invites us to deeper faith, greater sacrifice, or unexpected mission, we may respond with doubt and hesitation.God's call always requires us to step beyond the boundaries of what we know. He draws us out of our comfort zones, out of our “native place,” into a new life in which we are called to carry Christ within us in a wholly new and astonishing way.At first, this can be shocking. Like the people of Nazareth, we may be tempted to reject the unfamiliar work God is doing in us, preferring the comfort of what is known to the challenge of what is holy. But grace does not always come in expected ways. Grace often enters quietly, veiled in the ordinary, requiring faith to see and courage to embrace.Reflect today on what can be, at times, an unsettling truth: God is calling you out of the ordinary and familiar into the extraordinary and new. Holiness always demands change—conversion of heart, transformation of mind, and renewal of life. Embrace that change. Resolve to welcome the unexpected. Be ready for the newness of the Gospel by allowing grace to cleanse every obstacle, every doubt, and every attachment that holds you back. In this way, Christ will gradually reveal the new person He is calling you to become—formed not by the limits of your “native place,” but by the boundless promise of His love and almighty power.My transformative Lord, I know that You are calling me out of my comfort zone, out of the familiar, and into the realm of the unknown. Please give me courage and trust so that nothing keeps me from doubting Your grace and plan for my life. Use me as You will and make me into a vessel of Your presence in this world. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image: See page for author, CC BY 4.0, via Wikimedia CommonsSource: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.

Have you ever heard someone say, "That's a BAD part of town!' Sometimes we drive through "bad" parts of town where there are old, abandoned houses, boarded up doors/windows, the lawns are overgrown and there are a lot of bad things that happen in that area. You could say that Jesus grew up in a "bad" town. In fact, people said, "Can ANYTHING good come out of Nazareth?" Jesus did!!! And we'll discover more about what Jesus did as a child!Year B Quarter 3 Week 31All Bible verses are from the NKJVHymn: Tis LoveThat Makes us HappyWrite to Ms. Katie: seedpod@startingwithjesus.comKatie's Korner: https://startingwithjesus.com/katies-korner/Find the Lessons Here: Kindergarten https://bit.ly/SeedPodKLessonsPrimary https://bit.ly/SeedPodPLessonsConnect with Us:Website: https://startingwithjesus.comStarting With Jesus - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/StartingWithJesusSeedPod - YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCCvU2FBPEL5-Zi2QW0STVLg Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/startingwithjesusFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/startingwithjesusAcknowledgments:Bible Readings this Week: Abi Podcast Producer: Katie ChitwoodSound Engineer: Dillon AustinMy Bible First, https://bit.ly/SeedPodLesson  for use of their Bible Lesson curriculum.AudioVerse, https://www.audioverse.org/  for partnering with us and supporting our ministry.Lindsey Mills, for writing and performing our SeedPod Kids Theme Song & Background Music. To learn more about her music or to get her CD, email her: lindsey@startingwithjesus.com

Read OnlineFrom Humble BeginningsJesus proposed a parable to the crowds. “The Kingdom of heaven is like a mustard seed that a person took and sowed in a field. It is the smallest of all the seeds, yet when full-grown it is the largest of plants. It becomes a large bush, and the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” Matthew 13:31–32Today's Gospel presents two brief yet profoundly rich parables—the mustard seed and the leaven—each revealing distinct dimensions of the mystery of the Kingdom of Heaven. Together, they draw our attention to the Kingdom's humble beginnings and hidden power, which unfold silently yet irresistibly in the world and within the human soul.Each parable possesses layers of meaning, and the Church Fathers deeply explored these levels. In the Parable of the Mustard Seed, the seed is frequently interpreted as Christ Himself. As “the smallest of all the seeds,” the mustard seed illustrates the hiddenness and apparent insignificance of Christ's earthly life, from a worldly point of view. He entered the world in obscurity, born in a cave in Bethlehem, fleeing into exile in Egypt, and growing up in the humble village of Nazareth. His divinity—the Eternal Word through whom all things were made—was veiled beneath the lowliness of His humanity.Even as He hung upon the Cross, His divine majesty was hidden from the eyes of the world. Yet from this seed of self-emptying love—this total descent into poverty and death—sprang forth the triumph of the Resurrection, shattering the bonds of sin and death. In His risen glory, Christ has become the “largest of plants,” and, as the parable says, “the birds of the sky come and dwell in its branches.” This image is often understood as a symbol of the Church, the Mystical Body of Christ, in which the peoples of the earth find shelter, nourishment, and eternal hope.The mustard seed also represents Christ planted within each soul. When He is sown in the fertile ground of our hearts—through faith, prayer, and the Sacraments—He takes root and grows, transforming our lives from within. Though His presence may begin in us imperceptibly, it has the power to expand beyond all measure, bearing fruit not only in our lives but in the lives of all those we encounter. Ultimately, this growth finds its consummation in the New Heavens and the New Earth, where the Kingdom of God will be fully revealed.The second parable—the leaven—expresses a similar truth in another form. The leaven is often interpreted as Christ or His grace, working silently and effectively. Mixed into three measures of flour, it gradually transforms the entire batch—symbolizing the hidden work of grace within the soul. Here, Christ is not only among us, but within us, sanctifying every part of our being from the inside out.Today's Gospel concludes with a beautiful citation from “the prophet,” taken from Psalm 78:2: “I will open my mouth in parables, I will announce what has lain hidden from the foundation of the world” (Matthew 13:35). On the surface, the parables appear simple, but they conceal divine truths from those who approach with indifference or pride. Yet for those who receive them in faith and prayerfully ponder them, the Holy Spirit opens the inner meaning. What was hidden from the beginning of creation is now disclosed—not to the wise and learned of this world, but to the humble of heart. In this way, the parables serve as a school of divine wisdom, inviting the soul to move beyond mere appearances into the depths of God's eternal plan.Reflect today on the hidden ways in which Christ is at work in your life. Are you attentive to His quiet growth within you? Do you nourish the seed of His presence through prayer and the Sacraments? Trust that, even in small beginnings, God is building His Kingdom—in you, through you, and for His greater glory.Most glorious King, You desire that Your Kingdom be born within our lives through the grace poured out by Your Passion, Death, and Resurrection. Come to me, Lord, and plant the seed of grace deep within my soul. Let it take root and grow, transforming me according to Your perfect will. Through me, expand Your Kingdom on earth, until the day we behold the fullness of Your eternal Kingdom in glory. Jesus, I trust in You.  Image: Parable of the Mustard Seed, by Lawrence OP, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.Source: Free RSS feed from catholic-daily-reflections.com — Copyright © 2026 My Catholic Life! Inc. All rights reserved. This content is provided solely for personal, non-commercial use. Redistribution, republication, or commercial use — including use within apps with advertising — is strictly prohibited without written permission.